What do you think Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping would think about modern China?

I think Mao would be troubled. Deng, maybe not so much. Mao placed a greater value on equity, I would say, and was willing to sacrifice a lot for it. Deng thought the economy was more important and I think he understood that they had to tolerate some inequity in order to juice economic growth.

Both would probably be discomfited by the growing diversity of voices being heard as a result of the internet. They might even be willing to cut off the internet entirely. Mao, I’m sure, would. Mao would love North Korea. Deng probably would like South Korea better.

They would have denounced the masses for turning into Capitalist Pigs as they drove to their summer palaces in their Mercedes Benzes and Maseratis to eat lobster and caviar prepared by their kitchen staff.

Deng was one of the leaders of China who took it from Communism towards a market economy so I think he would be pleased, with reservations. Mao was one of the great dictators of the twentieth century, I think he loved power for its own sake. He would hate China as he is no longer in charge.

Modern China is far too stable for Mao’s liking, seeing as how he liked to get things back to a more revolutionary state every time things started to settle down.

@Billy_Strauss has nailed what all the major Communist movements around the world today were really rationalized to ensure.

Mao has the blood of as many as 50,000,000 of his countrymen on his dead hands. He was the all time king of dictatorial, political butchers. Who cares what he would think. Whatever he would think is almost certainly wrong and harmful for human consumption.

As @flutherother noted, I think Deng would be pretty pleased with where the nation has gotten. He was definitely an authoritarian leader, and probably would find the growing democratic spirit there troubling, as @wundayatta suggests. But deep down, he was also a pragmatist who wanted the best for his country. And right now, China is doing fairly well. It has lots of deep, endemic problems facing it, but what country ever sailed with fair winds and following seas forever?

I think both Mao and Deng will be pleased about the modern china, Their purposes are witnessing the development of the country.