Deng Xiaoping (1904 - 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary, politician and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to 1989. [1] Although he never held the formal office of head of state or party chairman, he directed the programme of economic liberalisation known as reform and opening-up, which reshaped China's economy and society. [2] His rule also encompassed the violent suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. [3]
Early life and education
Deng Xiaoping was born on 22 August 1904 in Guang'an, in Sichuan province, then part of the Qing dynasty. [1] As a teenager he travelled to France on a work-study programme, taking factory jobs while becoming involved in radical politics among Chinese students there. He joined the Chinese Communist Party during this period and afterwards studied in the Soviet Union at Moscow Sun Yat-sen University and the Communist University of the Toilers of the East. [1]
Revolutionary career
Returning to China, Deng worked as a party organiser and political commissar. He took part in the Long March and held senior political posts in Communist forces during the war against Japan and the Chinese Civil War. [2] After the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 he rose quickly through the party apparatus, becoming General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 1956 and one of the leading administrators of the new state.
His pragmatic approach to economic management brought him into conflict with Mao Zedong. Deng was purged during the Cultural Revolution and sent to perform manual labour, was rehabilitated, and was then removed from office a second time before Mao's death in 1976. [1]
Paramount leader
By late 1978 Deng had outmanoeuvred his rivals and become the effective leader of China, a position he held without ever serving as party chairman, president or premier. [2] Under his direction the party adopted the policy of reform and opening-up: agricultural collectivisation was dismantled in favour of the household responsibility system, private enterprise was permitted, foreign investment was welcomed, and special economic zones were created in coastal cities such as Shenzhen. [4] The programme was framed ideologically as "socialism with Chinese characteristics."
Deng also negotiated the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration providing for the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 under the formula of "one country, two systems." [1] He normalised relations with the United States and visited Washington in 1979.
Tiananmen Square and retirement
In the spring of 1989, student-led demonstrations calling for political liberalisation occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Deng supported the imposition of martial law and the deployment of the army, and on the night of 3-4 June troops cleared the square and surrounding streets, killing large numbers of civilians. [3] The crackdown drew international condemnation and sanctions.
Deng resigned his last formal post, the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission, later in 1989, but retained decisive influence. In 1992 he made a celebrated tour of southern China to reaffirm the reform programme after a period of retrenchment. He died in Beijing on 19 February 1997. [1]
Legacy
Deng's reforms are credited with producing decades of rapid growth and a historic reduction in poverty in China, while leaving the Communist Party's political monopoly intact. [2] He remains a contested figure, honoured in China as the architect of its modernisation and held responsible abroad for the repression of 1989. [3]
