At the summit of Lianhua Mountain overlooking Shenzhen, China's earliest window to the outside world, a giant bronze statue of Deng Xiaoping greeted a faithful follower on Monday.

Premier Li Keqiang sorted out ribbons in a flower basket at the statue commemorating China's reform mastermind. It was the second day of Li's first journey outside of Beijing this year. His visit is expected to set the tone for the world's second-largest economy, which is struggling to recover from its lowest growth since the global financial crisis of 2008.

"In deep memory of Comrade Deng Xiaoping", the ribbons read. After placing the basket in front of the 6-meter-tall structure, Li bowed deeply in a gesture of tribute.

The symbolic and brisk ritual sent a clear signal that the premier's commitment to reform and opening-up has not changed.

He has good reason to keep faith. On a personal note, the college entrance exam process that resumed as a result of Deng's efforts in 1977 transformed Li - then a production team leader in a landlocked village in central China - into a law student at China's elite Peking University, where he became a youth leader, the starting point of his climb up the power ladder.

Li has been working since he assumed office in March 2013 to overcome resistance from conservatives both outside and within the government to accelerate market reforms. A number of initiatives for which compromise seemed difficult have begun to take shape, although many are still in their early stages.

The reform of State-owned enterprises; the circulation of rural land resources; the equal application of social welfare, medical care and education between farmers-turned-migrant workers and their fellow urban residents; and many other subjects on the massive reform road map endorsed by the Party in 2013 have progressed, albeit slowly.

But some are critical of the reform measures, and even of the anti-graft efforts to cut luxuries, for the pain that corporations and local governments are enduring, warning they could cause a complete and irreparable halt of economic growth. On the other hand, more are anxious about the slow pace of the reform initiatives and are calling for greater boldness.

The second-most powerful man in China has reportedly "slammed the desk" in meetings with cabinet members, out of frustration that officials are refraining from concrete action to deploy reforms at the local level.

Such pain, mostly self-inflicted, is unavoidable on the path toward a well-structured economy with better social transparency, and it will almost certainly continue into 2015. But the agony, as well as the reform difficulties that Li is facing now, will not be greater than Deng endured as he was dragging China out of the post-Mao era, both economically and intellectually. By that measure, Deng's legacy makes a good point of reference for the current reformer.

(China Daily USA 01/06/2015 page3)