Historical Figure
Deng Xiaoping
d. 1997
Leader of China from 1978 to 1989
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Biography
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1978 to 1989. Emerging as China's most influential figure after Mao Zedong's death in 1976, Deng consolidated political power and guided the country into an era of reform and opening up that transitioned the nation toward a socialist market economy. Credited as the "Architect of Modern China", he is recognized for shaping both socialism with Chinese characteristics and Deng Xiaoping Theory.
In Their Own Words (5)
When our thousands of Chinese students abroad return home, you will see how China will transform itself.
As quoted in Forbes, Vol. 176, Editions 7-13 (2005), p. 79 , 2005
We mustn't fear to adopt the advanced management methods applied in capitalist countries (...) The very essence of socialism is the liberation and development of the productive systems (...) Socialism and market economy are not incompatible (...) We should be concerned about right-wing deviations, but most of all, we must be concerned about left-wing deviations.
Cited by António Caeiro in Pela China Dentro (translated), Dom Quixote, Lisboa, 2004. , 2004
A basic contradiction between socialism and the market economy does not exist.
As quoted in Daily report: People's Republic of China, Editions 240-249 (1993), p. 30 , 1993
It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.
As quoted in Hung Li China's Political Situation and the Power Struggle in Peking (1977), p. 107; according to Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (1993), p. 315, this quote is from a speech at the Communist Youth League conference in July 1962. , 1977
The United States brags about its political system, American President says one thing during the election, something else when he takes office, something else at midterm and something else when he leaves.
When asked about China's political stability by a group of American professors in 1983, as quoted in The Pacific Rim and the Western World: Strategic, Economic, and Cultural Perspectives (1987), p. 105 , 1987
Timeline
The story of Deng Xiaoping, told in moments.
A political commissar through the Long March, the Japanese war, and the civil war. He helps take Nanjing. After the revolution, he rises to vice premier and CCP secretary-general under Mao.
Purged during the Cultural Revolution. Denounced as the "number two capitalist roader." Stripped of all posts. Sent to work in a tractor factory in Jiangxi Province for four years. His son is thrown from a window by Red Guards and paralyzed for life.
Outmaneuvers Hua Guofeng and becomes paramount leader. He's 74. He doesn't take the title of president or party chairman. He doesn't need them. He launches "Reform and Opening Up." Special economic zones. Foreign investment. Market incentives. China's GDP will multiply 30-fold in 30 years.
Signs the Sino-British Joint Declaration with Margaret Thatcher. Hong Kong will return to China in 1997 under "one country, two systems." He's invented a formula: capitalism inside a communist state. The world has never seen this before.
Orders the military crackdown on Tiananmen Square. Hundreds, possibly thousands, killed. Student protests for democracy end in tanks. He chooses order over liberalization. The economic reforms continue. The political reforms stop.
Dies in Beijing of a lung infection and Parkinson's disease. He is 92. Time's Person of the Year twice. He lifted more people out of poverty than any leader in human history and crushed the movement that asked for the freedoms he wouldn't give.
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