Biography - Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was born in 1904 to a family of landlords in China. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1924 while studying France. Before returning to China in 1926 he went to Moscow, where he studied for several months. After returning to China he joined with Mao in organizing peasants into a communist force in southern China and was leader in the Long March. Deng was described as very talented and intelligent - he was nicknamed, "a living encyclopedia". During the civil war against the KMT, Deng proved to be a very good and pragmatic leader. After Mao established the People's Republic of China, Deng became part of the Politburo, or group of leaders of China. Mao used Deng to work with the government of the Soviet Union in getting Soviet aid for China.
Mao and Deng's close relationship broke down as a result of the failed Great Leap Forward. Deng was one of the more moderate Chinese leaders who pushed Mao out of power in order to save the country from the terrible famine. The reforms that Deng made stopped the famine and helped China recover. However, Mao was furious over losing power and plotted on how to get back at Deng. In 1966, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution. Deng and his family were force to move to rural China. Deng was forced to work in a factory cafeteria. His son was attacked by the Red Guard, who threw him out of a fourth story window and left him paralyzed.
The Cultural Revolution resulted in chaos across China and the communist leaders realized they needed Deng's talents in ruling China. In 1973, Deng returned to power. When Mao died in 1976, Deng emerged as the leader of China. His first action was to punish the communist leaders who had punished him during the Cultural Revolution by having them arrested and jailed - this included Mao's widow.
Deng opened China to trade with the rest of the world and allowed foreign countries to build factories in China to take advantage of cheap Chinese workers. In short, Deng turned China away from a Communist system to a Capitalist system and the result was the economy of China began to grow at a rapid rate and quality of life for the average Chinese person began to improve, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Deng’s willingness to change his policies based on their effectiveness, instead of being based only on communist ideals, is best described in Deng’s saying, “What does it matter if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.”
In addition, while Deng gave the Chinese people more economic freedom, he did not give them political freedom. In 1989, when a large group of students began to protest for democracy in Tienanmen Square in the center of Beijing (the capital city) , Deng ordered the army to crush the protests - hundred of people were killed by the army. The Tienanmen Square Massacre showed that Deng thought that the communist party would not give up power the way it had in the Soviet Union. After this, Deng slowly gave power to younger leaders who would continue his market reforms without changing the political structure of the communist dictatorship. In his last years Deng started debate within the Communist Party on the need to balance economic reform with political stability. Deng died in 1997 at age ninety-two.
Source # 1 - Video on Deng Xiaoping's reforms in China - click here
Source # 2 - Video on Tienanmen Square protests - click here
Source # 4 - Video on how well the image of the "Tank Man" is known in China today - click here
Source # 5 - Video on China's transformation from the first British trade expedition to the present day - click here
