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Deng Xiaoping (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.
 Childhood
Deng was born Deng Xiansheng 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.
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.
Political
rise
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.
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
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
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
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 on
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 ), 1,000
(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.
Although there is debate on whether or not Deng actually said it, his perceived
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 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. At that time, the same music that was played during
Mao's moment of silence, played. 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 tearful 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.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Deng
Xiaoping - Manifesting Generator - Biography
