Abstract: Both Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping hold that maintaining national benefit and national soverignty is the sole principle of national security, that self-reliance and peaceful coexis tence are the strategic pillars of national security, that maintaining national security in connection with the world development is the common practice, and that refusing to be cowed by the bluster of reactionaries is the essential spiri t of national securi ty.The differences of their views lie in their differents tresses, different ways and dif ferent approaches.

Key words: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, national security