Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping became the most powerful leader in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1970s.
He served as the chairman of the Communist Party's Military Commission and was the chief architect of
China's economic improvements during the 1980s.
Deng Xiaoping was born in Guangan, Sichuan Province, on August 22, 1904. His parents were Deng
Wenming, a relatively well-to-do landowner, and the second of his four wives, Deng Danshi. Deng grew
up with one sister, two brothers, and the children of his father's other wives. He joined the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) in 1924 while on a high school work-study program in France. Before returning
to China in 1926 he went to Moscow, where he studied for several months.
During the fabled Long March of 1934 and 1935, when Communist Chinese traveled six thousand miles
to set up a home in inland China, Deng served first as director of the political department. After the war
with Japan began in 1937 Deng was appointed political commissar (party official) of the 129th Division.
The force grew into a large military machine and became one of the four largest Communist army units
during the war.
Deng rose quickly in the leadership hierarchy after his transfer to Beijing, China, in 1952. He became
CCP secretary-general in 1954 and a member of the Politburo (ruling party). During the Eighth CCP
Congress in 1956 Deng was elevated to the six-man Politburo Standing Committee and appointed
general secretary. By then, he had become one of the most powerful men in China.
By many accounts Deng was an able, talented, and intelligent man. He was nicknamed "a living
encyclopedia" by his peers. Chairman Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the creator of the People's Republic of
China (PRC), pointed out Deng's abilities to Nikita Khrushchev (1894– 1971) of the Soviet Union, the
former Communist country which consisted of Russia and other states. Deng visited the Soviet Union
several times in the 1950s and the 1960s, as he was closely involved in Chinese-Soviet relations and
their dispute over the international communist movement.
Mao and Deng parted ways in the 1960s as they disagreed over the strategy of economic development
and other policies. Mao disapproved of Deng for making decisions without consulting him. In 1966 Mao
launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) and mobilized the youthful Red Guards to
rid the party of "capitalist powerholders," such as Deng. From 1969 to 1973, Deng and his family were
exiled (forced to leave) to rural Jiangxi to undergo reeducation, during which time he performed manual
labor and studied the writings of Mao and Karl Marx (1818–1893).
In the spring of 1973 Deng was brought back to Beijing and reinstated as a vice-premier after a major
realignment of political forces. Deng's ability and expertise were highly valued in the Chinese
leadership, and he quickly assumed important roles. In late 1973 he carried out a major reorganization of
regional military leaders and was elevated to the Politburo.
As Premier Chou Enlai was hospitalized after May 1974, leadership increasingly fell on Deng's
shoulders. In January 1975 Deng was elevated to a party vice-chairman, the senior vice-premier, and the
army chief of staff. However, Deng's eagerness to carry out political reforms pushed away Mao and
other radicals, and Deng was soon forced from power.
After Mao's death in July 1977, Deng began his political comeback. His first task was to destroy Mao's
followers and to downgrade Mao's lasting authority. Another powerful measure of de-Maoization was to
put the "Gang of Four" on public trial, which began in Beijing on November 20, 1980. These four
radical leaders, including Mao's widow Chiang Ch'ing, were the late chairman's most devoted
supporters. The trial symbolized the triumph of veteran officials, led by Deng, who had fallen victim to
Mao's radical changes between 1966 and 1976.
Deng's economic policies required opening China to the rest of the world in order to attract foreign
investment and to educate students abroad in the latest technologies. Accordingly, the PRC in 1978
signed a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Japan. In 1979, Deng obtained the nation's official
recognition from the United States. Chinese-Soviet relations were gradually improved over the next
decade, and he achieved the long-cherished goal of recovering the British colony of Hong Kong through
an agreement implemented in 1997.
When the Chinese economy began to crumble, Deng reduced investment in heavy industry, increased
prices paid by the state to farmers, and arranged a series of bonuses to raise workers' incomes. Farmers
were encouraged to sell more produce privately, and a rapid growth of free markets for farm produce
occurred.
Throughout these reforms, Deng insisted upon maintaining China's socialist system. The reforms Deng
installed generally improved the quality of life but produced inequalities throughout China. In the 1980s
the economy began to slip; unemployment increased and produced growing difference in living
standards between the classes.
In 1979 some of Deng's supporters had openly opposed his dictatorship and called for a democratic
political system. Deng himself shut down this democracy movement by imprisoning some of their
leaders, and banning unofficial organizations and publications. In December of 1986, widespread
student demonstrations were shut down by the government.
Deng's insistence through the 1980s on maintaining China's socialist system while putting his economic
reforms into place had by 1989 forced him into a corner. Focusing on demands for greater democracy, a
series of student demonstrations at Tiananmen Square occurred during Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev's (1931–) official state visit to Beijing and proved a serious embarrassment to China's
leaders—one made worse by worldwide television coverage. The violence that followed on June 4,
1989, is believed to have killed hundreds of demonstrators in Beijing alone.
Worldwide criticism of the massacre in Tiananmen Square and the uneasy domestic peace that followed
brought a tightening of controls over the Chinese people, but did not shake Deng from his dedication to
the Communist Party's dictatorship. Recognizing his advanced age, Deng sought to continue his "open
door" policy and other political and economic reforms by putting Premier Zhao Ziyang, and many other
younger officials in positions of responsibility. In November of 1989, Deng resigned his last official
position as head of the Central Military Commission.
In his last years Deng started debate within the Communist Party on the need to balance economic
reform with political stability. As Deng's health declined, he became further removed from his duties of
daily decision-making. His last public appearance was during lunar new year festivities in early 1994,
and on February 19, 1997, he died in Beijing, China, at age ninety-two.
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Global Studies
Name ______________________________________
Deng Xiaoping
1. What is Deng most remembered for?
2. What was Deng’s family background?
3. What are some of the highlights of Deng’s involvement with the Communist Party?
4. How was Deng described? What was his nickname?
5. Why was there a falling out between Deng and Mao?
6. What happened to Deng during the Cultural Revolution?
7. What was Deng’s first task during his political comeback?
8. What did Deng’s economic policies require China to do?
9. With which nations did Deng improve relations?
10. What changes did Deng make when China’s economy began to crumble?
11. What outcome of Deng’s economic policies is at odds with the basic ideas of communism?
12. How did Deng respond to calls for democratic reforms?
13. When did Deng give up his last official position? What major event occurred that year?