The Globe and Mail Biff Matthews and Doug McCutcheon Special to The Globe and Mail Published February 15, 2021 Bookmark The person most responsible for China’s extraordinary economic growth over the past 50 years is Deng Xiaoping, who led that country from 1978 to 1989. His most famous quotation was a homespun comment about a distinction without a material difference. “No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; if it can catch mice, it is a good cat.” The investment world is rife with this type of unhelpful distinction. One of the oldest has lately had a lot of play – the distinction between value investing and growth investing.