It was a love affair — platonic, but a love affair, all the same. As a former US diplomat put it, President Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were “political and philosophical soul mates”. The connection between Reagan and Thatcher secured the return of the ideal of the free market. Both aimed at rolling back what they thought an over-intrusive and incompetent state. Their marriage of ideas did not just reshape the politics and policies of their countries. It reshaped those of the world. But it did not do so, on its own. Arguably, Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power in China was a more fundamental long-run shift.
這是一場戀愛——柏拉圖式戀愛，但依然是一場戀愛。正如美國一名前外交官所說，美國總統隆納•雷根(Ronald Reagan)和英國首相瑪格麗特•撒切爾(Margaret Thatcher)是「政治和哲學方面的精神伴侶」。里根與撒切爾之間的關係，確保了自由市場理想的迴歸。他們兩人都旨在削弱他們認爲干涉過多、能力低下的政府。他們觀點的統一，不僅僅重塑了美英兩國的政治與政策，而且重塑了全球的政治與政策，但並非僅靠其本身做到了這一點。可以說，鄧小平在中國上臺，是一項更具根本性的長期變化。