Inspirational Quotes by Deng Xiaoping (Chinese Statesman)

Deng Xiaoping or Teng Hsiao-p’ing (1904–97) was a Chinese Communist statesman who was the most significant figure in the People’s Republic of China from the late 1970s until he died. He discarded many conventional communist precepts and attempted to integrate elements of the free-enterprise system and other reforms into the Chinese economy. Time magazine recognized his reforms by designating him “Man of the Year” twice in 1976 and 1985.

Born in Sichuan province into a middle-class landlord household, Deng joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1925 as a student in Paris, where he met a fellow student, Zhou Enlai, and assumed the name Xiaoping (‘Little Peace.’) He later studied in Moscow (1926,) becoming associated with Mao Zedong. He took part in the Long March (1934–36) and served as a political commissar to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during the civil war (1937–49.)

In 1954, Deng became secretary general of the CCP but responded strongly to the immoderations of the Great Leap Forward (1958–59.) During Mao’s 1966–69 Cultural Revolution, he was criticized and purged, along with Liu Shaoqi, and sent for ‘re-education’ in a tractor factory in Nanchang. However, he was rehabilitated by Zhou Enlai in 1974, becoming vice premier. When Zhou died in 1976, Deng was again pushed into hiding, but following widespread protests, he was reinstated in 1977 and by 1978 had become the dominant figure in Chinese politics.

Working with protégés Hu Yaobang and Zhao Zjyang, Deng introduced a pragmatic new economic modernization program. Despite retiring from the politburo in 1987, he remained influential. He attempted to create a ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics,’ but his reputation was tainted by authorizing the army’s massacre of 3,000 unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in June 1989.

Uli Franz’s Deng Xiaoping (1988) is a notable biography exploring the life of Deng. Another significant work is Ezra F. Vogel’s Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China (2013,) which examines how Deng successfully steered China away from the aftermath of the devastating Cultural Revolution, transforming it from a struggling, impoverished nation into an economic powerhouse within a single generation.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Deng Xiaoping