Deng Xiaoping's monuments may be seen all around the China that continues in a strong and stable condition after his death at the age of 92. They include the major economic transition from a state to a capitalist market economy, the crucial role of the Communist Party in China's political leadership, the crushing of the Tiananmen revolt in 1989 and the growing importance of his vast country in world affairs.
It is a remarkable and a highly significant achievement that he leaves behind for several younger generations of his countrymen and women. It is equally so for the rest of the world. Younger generations in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, by the time they reach his age, will have had to come to terms with an emergent China. It will loom much larger in their economic, political and cultural calculations during the twenty first century than it has in this one.
Such is the measure of this senior statesman. His career spans the long and turbulent history of China in this century. From his early years in rural Sichuan, through his student days in Marseilles and Paris when he joined the communists, the revolutionary events in Shanghai in the 1920s and the Long March of the following decade, his leadership role in resisting the Japanese invasion and his participation in the 1949 revolution, Deng Xiaoping became one of the first rank figures in the new national leadership. This legitimacy sustained him through the post revolutionary decades. It culminated decisively in his succession in the 1970s from the Maoist policies that had altogether run their destructive course by then.
All the great shifts of policy with which he became associated in the last two decades, are set to be prolonged after his death. This continuity and stability is the greatest tribute to Deng's success as a leadership figure. It marks out a decisive differentiation between China and the Soviet Union, which disintegrated during the end of his term of office after the Communist Party there lost control of the process of political and economic change.
The great distinguishing characteristic of Mr Deng's latter period of leadership in China was the heading off of such an outcome. The great question that survives him is whether it will be possible for a younger generation of communist leaders to sustain that achievement. In the short to medium term there can be little doubt that they can do so. What has been lost by way of communist legitimacy has been largely compensated by a renewed Chinese nationalism based on a proud affirmation of economic, political and diplomatic achievements.
The transition beyond Deng Xiaoping has been managed with great skill and confidence. It is the first major event in an important year, which will see People's and Party congresses and the reversion of Hong Kong to Chinese rule - the end of a long imperial interference in its affairs. The transition is bound also to raise expectations of further political and legal change, including from those who suffered from the repression ordered by Deng Xiaoping against the Tiananmen rebellion in 1989. Managing this period will tax to the utmost the younger group under President Jiang Zemin which now assumes the full mantle of leadership. They deserve the sympathetic engagement of the international community as they set about this task.