Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping 邓小平
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
In office 1956–1967
Preceded by	Zhang Wentian
Succeeded by	position abolished
Chairman of the Central Military Commission of CCP
In office 1981–1989
Preceded by	Hua Guofeng
Succeeded by	Jiang Zemin
Personal details
Born	200px (1904-08-22)August 22, 1904 Guang'an, Sichuan
Died	February 19, 1997(1997-02-19) (aged 92) Beijing
Resting place	200px
Nationality	Chinese
Political party	Communist Party of China
Parent	200px

Deng Xiaoping (simplified Chinese: 邓小平; traditional Chinese: 鄧小平; pinyin: Dèng Xiǎopíng; Wade–Giles: Teng Hsiao-p'ing; August 22, 1904 – February 19, 1997) was a prominent Chinese politician and reformer, and the late leader of the Communist Party of China (CCP). Deng never held office as the head of state or the head of government, but served as the de facto leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to the early 1990s. He pioneered "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and Chinese economic reform, also known as the "socialist market economy", and opened China to the global market.

Inheriting a China wrought with social and institutional woes left over from the Cultural Revolution and other mass political movements of the Mao era, Deng was the core of the "second generation" Communist Party leadership. Deng is generally credited with developing China into one of the fastest growing economies in the world and vastly increased the standard of living. He was, however, unwilling to embrace wide-scale political reform. Owing to the opening up of society, the reforms also led to higher crime rates, corruption, loss of traditional values, and opened a significant urban-rural wealth disparity; problems left for the next generation of leadership.

Childhood

Deng was born Deng Xiansheng (simplified Chinese: 邓先圣; traditional Chinese: 鄧先聖) on August 22, 1904 in Paifang village in Xiexing township, Guang'an County, Sichuan Province. While in school he adopted the name of Deng Xixian ([邓希贤] Error: {{Lang}}: unrecognized language tag: zh-s (help)). He was educated in France, as were many notable Asian revolutionaries (such as Ho Chi Minh and Zhou Enlai), where he discovered Marxism-Leninism.

His first wife, Zhang Xiyuan, one of his schoolmates from Moscow, died when she was 24, a few days after giving birth to Deng's first child, a baby girl, who also died. His second wife, Jin Weiying, left him after he came under political attack in 1933. His third wife, Zhuo Lin, was the daughter of an industrialist in Yunnan Province. She became a member of the Communist Party in 1938, and a year later married Deng in front of Mao's cave dwelling in Yan'an. They had five children: three daughters (Deng Lin, Deng Nan, Deng Rong) and two sons (Deng Pufang, Deng Zhifang).

Early career

In the summer of 1919, Deng Xiaoping graduated from the Chongqing Preparatory School. He and 80 schoolmates, participating in a work-study program for Chinese students, boarded a ship for France (traveling steerage) and in October arrived in Marseilles. Deng, the youngest of all the Chinese students, had just turned 15. He spent most of his time in France working, first at the Le Creusot Iron and Steel plant in central France, then later as a fitter in the Renault factory in the Paris suburb of Billancourt, as a fireman on a locomotive and as a kitchen helper in restaurants. He barely earned enough to survive. He also briefly attended middle schools in Bayeux and Chatillon.

In France, under the influence of his seniors (Zhao Shiyan, Zhou Enlai among others), Deng began to study Marxism and did political propaganda work. In 1921 he joined the Chinese Communist Youth League in Europe. In the second half of 1923 he joined the Chinese Communist Party and became one of the leading members of the General Branch of the Youth League in Europe. During 1926 Deng studied at Moscow in the then-USSR. He returned to China in early 1926.

In 1928 Deng led the Baise Uprising in Guangxi province against the Kuomintang government. The uprising soon failed and Deng went to the Central Soviet Area in Jiangxi province.

He was a veteran of the Long March, during which Deng served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. While acting as political commissar for Liu Bocheng, he organized several important military campaigns during the war with Japan and during the Civil War against the Kuomintang. In late November 1948, Deng led the final assault on KMT forces under the direct command of Chiang Kai-shek in his native Sichuan. The city of Chongqing fell to the PLA on December 1 and Deng was immediately appointed mayor and political commissar. (Chiang Kai-shek, who had moved his headquarters to Chongqing in mid-November fled to the provincial capital of Chengdu. This last mainland Chinese city to be held by the KMT fell December 10 and Chiang fled to Taiwan on the same day.) When the PRC was founded in 1949 Deng was sent to oversee issues in the Southwestern Region, and acted as its First Secretary. He was instrumental in holding "talks" with "Tibetan leaders", ensuring some "support for China's eventual annexation of Tibet" (No source sited) .

Political Ascension

As a supporter of Mao Zedong, Deng was named by Mao to several important posts in the new government, including Secretary General of the Communist Party, soon after the formation of the People's Republic of China.

File:Destroy liu-deng.jpg

Chinese poster saying: "Thoroughly pulverize the Liu-Deng reactionary line!", 1967 ("Liu" referring to Liu Shaoqi)

After officially supporting Mao Zedong in his Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957, Deng became General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and ran the country's daily affairs with then President Liu Shaoqi. Amid growing disenchantment with Mao's Great Leap Forward, Deng and Liu gained influence within the CCP. They embarked on economic reforms that bolstered their prestige among the party apparatus and the national populace. Deng and Liu advocated more pragmatic policies, as opposed to Mao's radicalist ideas.

Mao grew apprehensive that the prestige Deng and Liu gained from these efforts could lead to himself being reduced to a mere figurehead. For this amongst other reasons, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966, during which Deng fell out of favor and was forced to retire from all his offices. He was sent to the Xinjian County Tractor Factory in rural Jiangxi province to work as a regular worker. While there Deng spent his spare time writing. He was purged nationally, but to a lesser scale than Liu Shaoqi.

During the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping and his family were targeted by Red Guards, Red Guards imprisoned Deng's son, Deng Pufang. Deng Pufang was tortured and forced out of the window of a four-story building, becoming a paraplegic.

Nonetheless, when Premier Zhou Enlai fell ill from cancer, Deng Xiaoping became Zhou's choice for a successor, and Zhou was able to convince Mao to bring Deng Xiaoping back into politics in 1974 as Executive Vice-Premier, in practice running daily affairs. However, the Cultural Revolution was not yet over, and a radical political group known as the Gang of Four, led by Mao's estranged wife Jiang Qing, competed for power within the Communist Party. The Gang saw Deng as their greatest challenge to power. Zhou Enlai died in January 1976, to an outpouring of national grief, and Deng lost firm support within the party. After delivering Zhou's official eulogy at the state funeral, Deng was purged again at the instigation of the Gang of Four, though the decision of the Politburo to relieve him of all his posts because of "political mistakes" was unanimous.

Re-emergence of Deng

Deng gradually emerged as the de-facto leader of China in the few years following Mao's death in 1976. Prior to Mao's death, the only official position he held was that of Executive Vice-Premier of the State Council. By carefully mobilizing his supporters within the Chinese Communist Party, Deng was able to outmaneuver Mao's anointed successor Hua Guofeng, who had previously pardoned him, and then oust Hua from his top leadership positions by 1980-1981.

In contrast to previous leadership changes, Deng allowed Hua to retain membership in the Central Committee until November 2002, to quietly retire, and helped to set a precedent that losing a high-level leadership struggle would not result in physical harm.

Deng then repudiated the Cultural Revolution and, in 1977, launched the "Beijing Spring", which allowed open criticism of the excesses and suffering that had occurred during the period. Meanwhile, he was the impetus for the abolishment of the class background system. Under this system, the CCP put up employment barriers to Chinese deemed to be associated with the former landlord class, its removal therefore effectively allowed Chinese capitalists to join the Communist Party.

Deng gradually outmaneuvered his political opponents. By encouraging public criticism of the Cultural Revolution, he weakened the position of those who owed their political positions to that event, while strengthening the position of those like himself who had been purged during that time. Deng also received a great deal of popular support.

As Deng gradually consolidated control over the CCP, Hua was replaced by Zhao Ziyang as premier in 1980, and by Hu Yaobang as party chief in 1981. Deng remained the most influential CCP cadre, although after 1987 his only official posts were as chairman of the state and Communist Party Central Military Commissions.

Originally, the president was conceived of as a figurehead head of state, with actual state power resting in the hands of the premier and the party chief, both offices being conceived of as held by separate people in order to prevent a cult of personality from forming (as it did in the case of Mao); the party would develop policy, whereas the state would execute it.

Deng's elevation to China's new number-one figure meant that the historical and ideological questions around Mao Zedong had to be addressed properly. Because Deng wished to pursue deep reforms, to continue Mao's hard-line "class struggle" policies and mass public campaigns was unreasonable. In 1982 the Central Committee of the Communist Party released a document entitled On the Various Historical Issues since the Founding of the People's Republic of China. Mao retained his status as a "great Marxist, proletarian revolutionary, militarist, and general", and the undisputed founder and pioneer of the country and the People's Liberation Army. "His accomplishments must be considered before his mistakes", the document declared. Deng personally commented that Mao was "seven parts good, three parts bad." The document also stirred away the prime responsibility of the Cultural Revolution from Mao, although it did state that "Mao mistakenly began the Cultural Revolution", the "counter-revolutionary cliques" of the Gang of Four and Lin Biao were directed the majority of the blame.

Opening up

File:Brzezinski with Deng Xiaoping.jpg

Deng Xiaoping meeting with Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to President Carter, in 1979

Under Deng's direction, relations with the West improved markedly. Deng traveled abroad and had a series of amicable meetings with western leaders, and became the first Chinese leader to visit the United States in 1979 to meet with President Carter at the White House. Shortly after this meeting, the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) and established them with the People's Republic of China, and the People's Republic of China in turn launched an offensive into Vietnam, known as the Sino-Vietnamese War, resulting in an estimated 40,000 to 200,000 fatalities.

Sino-Japanese relations also improved significantly. Deng used Japan as an example of a rapidly progressing economic power that sets a good example for China's future economic directions.

Another achievement was the agreement signed by Britain and China on December 19, 1984 (Sino-British Joint Declaration) under which Hong Kong was to be handed over to the PRC in 1997. With the end of the 99-year lease on the New Territories expiring, Deng agreed that the PRC would not interfere with Hong Kong's capitalist system for 50 years. A similar agreement was signed with Portugal for the return of colony Macau. Dubbed "one country-two systems", this fairly unprecedented approach has been touted by the PRC as a potential framework within which Taiwan could be reunited with the Mainland in more recent years.

Deng, however, did little to improve relations with the Soviet Union, continuing to adhere to the Maoist line of the Sino-Soviet Split era that the Soviet Union was a superpower equally as "hegemonist" as the United States, but even more threatening to China because of its geographical proximity.

Changing China: Economic Reforms

File:Deng Xiaoping TIME.jpg

Deng Xiaoping (Teng Hsiao-p'ing), 1978 Person of the Year for TIME magazine.

Main article: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

Main article: Chinese economic reform

Improving relations with the outside world was the second of two important philosophical shifts outlined in Deng's program of reform termed Gaige Kaifang (lit. Reforms and Openness). The domestic social, political, and most notably, economic systems would undergo significant changes during Deng's time as leader. The goals of Deng's reforms were summed up by the Four Modernizations, those of agriculture, industry, science and technology and the military. The strategy for achieving these aims of becoming a modern, industrial nation was the socialist market economy. Deng argued that China was in the primary stage of socialism and that the duty of the party was to perfect so-called "socialism with Chinese characteristics." This interpretation of Chinese Marxism reduced the role of ideology in economic decision-making and deciding policies of proven effectiveness. Downgrading communitarian values but not necessarily the ideology of Marxism-Leninism himself, Deng emphasized that "socialism does not mean shared poverty". His theoretical justification for allowing market forces was given as such:

Planning and market forces are not the essential difference between socialism and capitalism. A planned economy is not the definition of socialism, because there is planning under capitalism; the market economy happens under socialism, too. Planning and market forces are both ways of controlling economic activity."

Unlike Hua Guofeng, Deng believed that no policy should be rejected outright simply because it was not associated with Mao, and unlike more conservative leaders such as Chen Yun, Deng did not object to policies on the grounds that they were similar to ones which were found in capitalist nations.

This political flexibility towards the foundations of socialism is strongly supported by quotes such as:

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."

Although Deng provided the theoretical background and the political support to allow economic reform to occur, it is in general consensus amongst historians that few of the economic reforms that Deng introduced were originated by Deng himself. Premier Zhou Enlai, for example, pioneered the Four Modernizations years before Deng. In addition, many reforms would be introduced by local leaders, often not sanctioned by central government directives. If successful and promising, these reforms would be adopted by larger and larger areas and ultimately introduced nationally. Many other reforms were influenced by the experiences of the East Asian Tigers.

This is in sharp contrast to the pattern in the perestroika undertaken by Mikhail Gorbachev in which most of the major reforms were originated by Gorbachev himself. The bottom-up approach of the Deng reforms, in contrast to the top-down approach of perestroika, was likely a key factor in the success of the former.

Deng's reforms actually included the introduction of planned, centralized management of the macro-economy by technically proficient bureaucrats, abandoning Mao's mass campaign style of economic construction. However, unlike the Soviet model, management was indirect through market mechanisms.

Deng sustained Mao's legacy to the extent that he stressed the primacy of agricultural output and encouraged a significant decentralization of decision making in the rural economy teams and individual peasant households. At the local level, material incentives, rather than political appeals, were to be used to motivate the labor force, including allowing peasants to earn extra income by selling the produce of their private plots at free market.

In the main move toward market allocation, local municipalities and provinces were allowed to invest in industries that they considered most profitable, which encouraged investment in light manufacturing. Thus, Deng's reforms shifted China's development strategy to an emphasis on light industry and export-led growth.

Light industrial output was vital for a developing country coming from a low capital base. With the short gestation period, low capital requirements, and high foreign-exchange export earnings, revenues generated by light manufacturing were able to be reinvested in more technologically-advanced production and further capital expenditures and investments.

However, in sharp contrast to the similar but much less successful reforms in Yugoslavia and Hungary, these investments were not government mandated. The capital invested in heavy industry largely came from the banking system, and most of that capital came from consumer deposits. One of the first items of the Deng reforms was to prevent reallocation of profits except through taxation or through the banking system; hence, the reallocation in state-owned industries was somewhat indirect, thus making them more or less independent from government interference. In short, Deng's reforms sparked an industrial revolution in China.

These reforms were a reversal of the Maoist policy of economic self-reliance. China decided to accelerate the modernization process by stepping up the volume of foreign trade, especially the purchase of machinery from Japan and the West. By participating in such export-led growth, China was able to step up the Four Modernizations by attaining certain foreign funds, market, advanced technologies and management experiences, thus accelerating its economic development.

Deng attracted foreign companies to a series of Special Economic Zones, where foreign investment and market liberalization were encouraged.

The reforms centered on improving labor productivity as well. New material incentives and bonus systems were introduced. Rural markets selling peasants' homegrown products and the surplus products of communes were revived. Not only did rural markets increase agricultural output, they stimulated industrial development as well. With peasants able to sell surplus agricultural yields on the open market, domestic consumption stimulated industrialization as well and also created political support for more difficult economic reforms.

There are some parallels between Deng's market socialism especially in the early stages, and Lenin's New Economic Policy as well as those of Bukharin's economic policies, in that both foresaw a role for private entrepreneurs and markets based on trade and pricing rather than central planning.

An interesting anecdote on this note is the first meeting between Deng and Armand Hammer. Deng pressed the industrialist and former investor in Lenin's Soviet Union for as much information on the NEP as possible.

Crackdown of the Tiananmen Square Protests

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 began mid-April 1989, following an official visit by Soviet Communist Party Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev, and triggered by the death of Hu Yaobang, the former party General Secretary. Hu was widely seen as a liberal-minded person and was forced to resign from his position by Deng Xiaoping and other influential leaders of the Politsburo.

Although the government declared martial law on May 20, the demonstrations continued. After deliberating among Communist party leaders, the use of military force to resolve the crisis was ordered, and Zhao Ziyang was ousted from political leadership. Soldiers and tanks from the 27th and 28th Armies of the People's Liberation Army were sent to take control of the city. These forces were confronted by Chinese students in the streets of Beijing and the ensuing violence resulted in both civilian and army deaths.

Estimates of civilian deaths which resulted vary: 400-800 (New York Times [1]), 1,000 (NSA), and 2,600 (Chinese Red Cross). Student protesters maintained that over 7,000 were tortured and killed. Following the violence, the government conducted widespread arrests to suppress, torture and kill the remaining supporters of the movement, limited access for the foreign press and controlled coverage of the events in the mainland Chinese press. The violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest caused widespread international condemnation of the PRC government. Deng Xiaoping, along with other hardliners, especially Li Peng, were generally blamed for the events. Critics accused Deng of suppressing any signs of political freedom that would undermine the direction of his economic reforms.

Deng's involvement in the events proved that he still possessed certain dictatorial powers. Deng and subsequent governments continue to justify crackdown on protests as a measure to enforce social stability for effective economic progress, these crackdowns involved torture, rape and mass murder. In Richard Evan's "Deng Xiaoping and the Making of Modern China" there are some hints as to how conflicted and confused elements in the government may have been. (1) After Tiananmen, Deng in a speech to officers praises the security forces "who had died 'as heroes' in the conflict and then offered his sympathy to the wounded... Yet he did not say a word about the conduct of the operations by their commanders or about orders ... received from above." (2) "A story from a party source that Deng called in Li Peng and Yang Shangkun at about the time of his address to the generals and told them that they had bungled the military operation appallingly." (3) "When the time came to replace Zhao Ziyang as general secretary, it was not Li Peng, who had decreed martial law and had been seen on television giving orders to the population on the evening of 3 June, but Jiang Zemin, the party secretary and mayor of Shanghai, who was chosen to succeed him."

For years after the crackdown, opponents of Deng, centered mainly around college campuses, would anonymously burn and smash little glass bottles as a gesture of contempt toward him, especially on the crackdown anniversary. (The word for little bottle sounds exactly like Xiaoping (Chinese: 小平; pinyin: xiǎopíng) in Chinese.)

After resignation and the 1992 Southern Tour

Officially, Deng decided to retire from top positions when he stepped down as Chairman of the Central Military Commission in 1989, and retired from the political scene in 1992. China, however, was still in the era of Deng Xiaoping. He continued to be widely regarded as the "paramount leader" of the country, believed to have backroom control. Deng was recognized officially as "The chief architect of China's economic reforms and China's socialist modernization". To the Communist Party, he was believed to have set a good example for communist cadres who refused to retire at old age. He broke earlier conventions of holding offices for life. He was often referred to as simply Comrade Xiaoping, with no title attached.

Because of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Deng's power had been significantly weakened and there was a growing formalist faction opposed to Deng's reforms within the Communist Party. To reassert his economic agenda, in the spring of 1992, Deng made his famous southern tour of China, visiting Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and spending the New Years in Shanghai, in reality using his travels as a method of reasserting his economic policy after his retirement from office. On his tour, Deng made various speeches and generated large local support for his reformist platform. He stressed the importance of economic construction in China, and criticized those who were against further economic and openness reforms. Deng's catchphrase "To Get Rich Is Glorious," unleashed a wave of personal entrepreneurship that continues to drive China's economy today. He stated that the "leftist" elements of Chinese society were much more dangerous than "rightist" ones. Deng was instrumental in the opening of Shanghai's Pudong New Area, revitalizing the city as China's economic hub.

His southern tour was initially ignored by the Beijing and national media, which were then under the control of Deng's political rivals. President Jiang Zemin showed little support. Challenging their media control, Deng penned several articles supporting reforms under the pen name "Huang Fuping" in Shanghai's Liberation Daily newspaper, which quickly gained support amongst local officials and populace. Deng's new wave of policy rhetoric gave way to a new political storm between factions in the Politburo. President Jiang eventually sided with Deng, and the national media finally reported Deng's southern tour several months after it occurred. Observers suggest that Jiang's submission to Deng's policies had solidified his position as Deng's heir apparent. On the backstage, Deng's southern tour aided his reformist allies' climb to the apex of national power, and permanently changed China's direction toward economic development. In addition, the eventual outcome of the southern tour proved that Deng was still the most powerful man in China.

Deng's insistence on economic openness aided in the phenomenal growth levels of the coastal areas, especially the "Golden Triangle" region surrounding Shanghai. Deng reiterated that "some areas must get rich before others", and asserted that the wealth from coastal regions will eventually be transferred to aid economic construction inland. The theory, however, faced numerous challenges when put into practice, as provincial governments moved to protect their own interests. The policy contributed to a widening wealth disparity between the affluent coast and the underdeveloped hinterlands.

Death and reaction

Deng Xiaoping's ashes lie in state in Beijing, February 1997. The banner reads Memorial Service of Comrade Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping died on February 19, 1997, at age 92 from a lung infection and Parkinson's disease, but his influence continued. Even though Jiang Zemin was in firm control, government policies maintained Deng's ideas, thoughts, methods, and direction. Officially, Deng was eulogized as a "great Marxist, great Proletarian Revolutionary, statesman, military strategist, and diplomat; one of the main leaders of the Communist Party of China, the People's Liberation Army of China, and the People's Republic of China; The great architect of China's socialist opening-up and modernized construction; the founder of Deng Xiaoping theory".

Although the public was largely prepared for Deng's death, as rumors had been circulating for a long time, the death of Deng was followed by the greatest publicly sanctioned display of grief for any Chinese leader since Mao Zedong himself. However, in contrast to Mao's death, Deng's death in the media was announced without any titles attached (Mao was called the Great Leader and Teacher, Deng was simply "Comrade"), or any emotional overtones from the news anchors that delivered the message. At 10 A.M. on the morning of February 24, from all walks of life in the entire nation, people were asked by Premier Li Peng to pause in silence in unison for three minutes. The nation's flags flew at half-staff for over a week. The nationally televised funeral, which was a simple and relatively private affair attended by the country's leaders and Deng's family, was broadcast on all cable channels. Jiang Zemin's emotional eulogy to the late reformist leader declared, "The Chinese people love Comrade Deng Xiaoping, thank Comrade Deng Xiaoping, mourn for Comrade Deng Xiaoping, and cherish the memory of Comrade Deng Xiaoping because he devoted his life-long energies to the Chinese people, performed immortal feats for the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation." Jiang vowed to continue Deng's policies. After the funeral, Deng was cremated, he donated his organs to medical research, and his ashes were subsequently scattered at sea, according to his wishes. For the next two weeks, Chinese state media ran news stories and documentaries related to Deng's life and death, with the regular 7PM National News program in the evening lasting almost two hours over the regular broadcast time.

Domestically, again in contrast to Mao's death, during which people wept on the streets, the reaction to Deng's death was largely calm, with no stock market crashes, no business closures, no wearing special armbands of grief, and no interruption to life in general. Certain segments of the Chinese population, notably the modern Maoists and radical reformers (the far left and the far right) both had negative views on Deng. In the year that followed, songs like "Story of the Spring" by Dong Wenhua, which were created in Deng's honour shortly after Deng's Southern Tour in 1992, once again were widely played.

There was a significant amount of international reaction to Deng's death. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Deng was to be remembered "in the international community at large as a primary architect of China's modernization and dramatic economic development". French President Jacques Chirac said "In the course of this century, few men have, as much as Deng Xiaoping, led a vast human community through such profound and determining changes"; British Prime Minister John Major commented about Deng's key role in the return of Hong Kong to Chinese control; Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien called Deng a "pivotal figure" in Chinese history. The Taiwan presidential office also sent its condolences, saying it longed for peace, cooperation, and prosperity. The Dalai Lama voiced regret.

Legacy

As a pivotal figure in modern Chinese history, Deng Xiaoping's legacy is very complex and opinion remains divided. Deng changed China from a country obsessed with mass political movements to a country focused on economic construction. In the process, Deng was unrelenting of the political clout of the Communist Party of China, as evidenced by the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests. Although some criticize Deng for his actions in 1989, China's significant economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s was largely credited to Deng's policies. Put into sharp contrast with Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika, Deng's economic socialist market economy socio-economic model was a largely novel concept.

The same policies, however, left a large number of issues unresolved. These issues, including unprofitable state-owned enterprises, regional imbalance, urban-rural wealth disparity, official corruption, and the resurfacing of evils within a more liberal society, were exacerbated during Jiang Zemin's term (1993-2003). Although some areas and segments of society were notably better off than before, the re-emergence of significant inequality did little to legitimize the Communist Party's founding ideals, as the party faced increasing social unrest. Deng's emphasis in light industry, compounded with China's large population, created a large cheap labour market which became significant on the global stage. Favouring joint-ventures over domestic industry, Deng allowed foreign capital to pour into the country. While some see these policies as a fast method to put China on par with the west, Chinese nationalists criticize Deng for embracing too many foreign ideas to the point where domestic industries are now insignificant.

Deng was an able diplomat, and he was largely credited with the successes of China in foreign affairs. Deng's time as China's leader saw agreements signed to return both Hong Kong and Macao to Chinese sovereignty. Deng's era, set under the backdrop of the Cold war, saw the best Sino-American relations in history. Some Chinese nationalists assert, however, that Deng's foreign policy was one of appeasement, and past wrongs such as war crimes committed by Japan during the World War II were forgotten to make way for economic partnership.

Memorials

When compared to the memorials of other former CCP leaders, those dedicated to Deng have been relatively low profile, in keeping with Deng's pragmatism. Deng's portrait, unlike that of Mao, has never been hung publicly anywhere in China. Likewise, he was cremated after death, as opposed to being embalmed like Mao.

There are a few public displays of Deng in the country. A bronze statue of Deng was erected on November 14, 2000, at the grand plaza of Lenhuao Mountain Park (simplified Chinese: 莲花山公园; traditional Chinese: 蓮花山公園; pinyin: liánhuā shān gōngyuán) of Shenzhen. This statue is dedicated to Deng's role as a great planner and contributor to the development of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, starting in 1984. The statue is 6 meters high, with an additional 3.68 meter base. The statue shows Deng striding forward confidently. In addition, in many coastal areas and on the island province of Hainan, Deng is seen on large roadside billboards with messages emphasizing economic reform or his policy of One Country, Two Systems.

Another bronze statue of Deng was dedicated August 13, 2004 in the city of Guang'an, Deng's hometown, in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The statue was erected to commemorate Deng's 100th birthday. The statue shows Deng, dressed casually, sitting on a chair and smiling. The Chinese characters for "Statue of Deng Xiaoping” are inscribed on the pedestal. The original calligraphy was written by Jiang Zemin, then Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

In Bishkek, capital of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, there is a 6-lane boulevard, 25 meters wide and 3.5 km long, the Deng Xiaoping Prospekt, which was dedicated on June 18, 1997. A 2 meter high red granite monument stands at the east end of this route. The epigraph in memory of Deng is written in Chinese, Russian and Kirghiz .

Assassination attempts

Based on the Chinese government's own admission, Deng Xiaoping is the senior Chinese leader who had experienced the most numerous assassination attempts. According to the recent declassified information after Hu Jintao came to power, there were seven attempts on Deng's life from 1960s to 1980s and most of the cases remain unsolved, and all of them rooted by the Maoists' opposition to Deng's reform:

1. In December 21, 1969, Deng Xiaoping was exiled to an abandoned infantry school at a place named Wangcheng Hill in Xinjian County of Jiangxi province for his house arrest under the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee's executive order #1. On the morning of December 23, 1969, a band of militia stormed and machine gunned the compound. However, the militia mistook the guards' residence for that of Deng and many of them were killed when the guards returned fire. The incident was later blamed on Lin Biao, but in the early 1980s, it was decided that Lin Biao was not involved. The case remains unsolved today.
2. On February 21, 1973, an Ilyushin Il-14 was sent from Beijing to Jiangxi to take Deng Xiaoping back to Beijing to resume his work, but on the same day, an urgent order from Beijing instructed Deng to take train instead, with additional protection of a squad personally led by the chief-of-staff of the local military district. It was reported that this change of plan was conducted by Zhou Enlai to protect Deng, and the Ilyushin Il-14 Deng originally planned to take exploded above Anhui on its way back. This case was never solved.
3. In September 1975, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Qing, and Hua Guofeng went to Shanxi, and one evening, when Deng was taking his daily walk, a shadow opened fire on Deng and missed. The guards returned fire but missed their targets, and the assassin was never caught and the case became a cold case file.
4. In April 1976, Deng Xiaoping was once again removed from his post and was exiled to a military reception center at Yuquan Mountain in the suburb of Beijing for yet another house arrest. The same evening Deng arrived, the Number 5 building where Deng resided caught on fire and later investigation revealed that the fire started on the first floor, the exact floor where Deng resided, and stopped exactly after every room in the first floor was burned. The official statement was due to short-circuit, but it was obvious that this was an assassination attempt. Deng Xiaoping was ordered by his guards assigned by Ye Jianying to go somewhere else to study Mao's work and thus was not in the building when the fire struck, and after the incident, he was immediately moved back in to the city. The case remains unsolved.
5. In July 1976, Deng was instructed to go to Chengde, Hebei to escape the summer heat. Deng refused to go by claiming that he needed to go to the hospital for his annual physical. When the Japanese car assigned to take him was returned to ministry of defense, it was discovered that the front axle was about to break and nobody would survive the consequent crash. The case is still open today.
6. In March 1980, Deng Xiaoping went to inspect troops in Jinan military region. As Deng was returning to the conference room from outside, one of the local guards shouted:'Down the capitalist Deng Xiaoping! Guard the Chairman Mao's revolutionary thought! Revenge for the vice-chairman Jiang Qing!' and opened fire on Deng at the same time. Thanks to Deng's body guards' quick reaction, Deng was not harmed and the assassin was quickly subdued. It was discovered the assassin was an ardent Maoist and it appeared he acted alone. However, most people believed that somebody else was behind it.
7. In February 1988, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, and Yang Shangkun went to Shanghai for the Chinese New Year, and resided in the Western Suburb Hotel. Four men claimed to be a Maoist Combat Team managed to penetrate the security and had a gunfight with the guards, resulting the killing of three of the four, and the last one arrested. From these Maoists, maps of Deng's residence, pistols with silencers, explosives, and incendiaries were found. There are disputes over if there were anyone behind the attempt.

References

• Evans, Richard. Deng Xiaoping and the Making of Modern China
• Spence, Jonathan D. "A Road is Made." In The Search for Modern China. 310. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999
• Spence, Jonathan D. "Century's End." In The Search for Modern China. 725. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999

External links

• Obituary, NY Times, February 20, 1997
• Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping
• Life of Deng Xiaoping
• China's former 'first family' (from CNN)
• China officially mourns Deng Xiaoping (from CNN)
• Deng's Free Market Nightmare (Maoist criticism)
• China 2002: Building socialism with Chinese characteristics (Communist Party USA)
• China Daily Biography
• Caricature of Deng Xiaoping (Chinese-Tools.com)

Video

• Documentary 52': China on the Catwalk
• 10th Anniversary of the death of Deng Xiaoping: SINA