WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The official announcement of Deng Xiaoping's death represented the first official indication to the United States government that the reports of his death were in fact true.</s>MIKE CHINOY, CNN HONG KONG BUREAU CHIEF: Here in Hong Kong, people woke up to this kind of headline in the local newspapers. There was a lot of debate about whether the Chinese would actually announce his death when it happened, or whether they would try and keep it secret. There had been so much speculation for so long about what would happen in China when Deng died that in many ways his death was something of an anti-climax. He had put a succession structure into place with Jiang Zemin as the man who would take over from him.</s>NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: A mourning period has begun for Deng Xiaoping, the last of China's original Communist revolutionaries. Chinese television...</s>REBECCA MACKINNON, BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: When Deng Xiaoping passed away, many Chinese were genuinely saddened. Deng changed the face of China's economy to what we see today which is a growing economy with increasing links to the outside world.</s>CHINOY: Deng Xiaoping will be remembered as the man who first set China on the path to market style changes and a more open society. He'll also be remembered as a flawed and tragic figure, because he will always be associated with the Chinese army's crackdown on democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. He will go down in history with these two legacies side by side.
CNN 20: The Death of Deng Xiaoping, February 19, 1997