biography
| name: |
Deng Xiaoping
|
| |
or Teng Hsiao-p'ing
|
pronunciation:
[duhng syowping]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1904–97)
|
| biography:
| Leader of the Chinese Communist Party, after 1978 the dominant figure in Chinese politics, born in Sichuan province, C China. He studied in France, where he joined the Communist Party, and in the Soviet Union, and became associated with Mao Zedong during the period of the Jiangxi Soviet (1928–34). In 1954 he became secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party, but reacted strongly against the excesses of the Great Leap Forward (1958–9). When Mao launched the Cultural Revolution (1966), Deng was criticized and purged along with Liu Shaoqi, but retained the confidence of Premier Zhou Enlai and was restored to power in 1974. Again dismissed in 1976, after the death of Mao he was restored once more to power, and from 1978 had taken China through a rapid course of pragmatic reforms. His prestige was severely damaged by his role in the repression of the mass protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989. |
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