Chinese President Hu Jintao Sunday described late leader Deng Xiaoping as a great man of the world whose scientific judgment of the modern times and deep vision into the international situation provide a basis for China's domestic and foreign policies.

He also enriched the diplomatic theory and practice of socialist China, said Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, at a grand gathering to mark Deng's birth centenary, held in the Great Hall of the People.

Based on the international situation in the 1980s, Deng reached a major conclusion that peace and development were the two important issues of the contemporary world, which laid a foundation for the Party and government to shift the focus of work to socialist modernization, Hu said.

Deng unswervingly advocated opening to the outside world and expanding exchange with other countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, and at the same time highly cherished and safeguarded China's independence and rights the Chinese people had gained after long-term struggle.

The late leader always paid great attention to the destiny of developing countries, ardently supported their development and appealed to the international community to help them. Noting China shares the same destiny with all other Third World countries, Deng stressed China will never seek hegemony and will always stand by the side of the Third World.

Deng had stressed again and again China is opposed to hegemonism in any form and will devote itself to safeguarding world peace, Hu said.

Source: Xinhua