Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Deng Xiaoping (Chinese Statesman)

Deng Xiaoping (1904–97) was a Chinese Communist leader and the most significant leader of the People’s Republic of China after Mao Zedong. He held various titles in the Communist Party until his official retirement in 1989; he remained an influential figure until his death. He discarded many traditional communist doctrines and included elements of the free-enterprise system and other reforms in the Chinese economy.

Born in Guang’an, Sichuan province, into a middle-class landlord household, Deng joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1925 as a student in Paris, where he encountered a fellow student, Zhou Enlai (who was later China’s first premier 1949–76) and assumed the name Xiaoping (‘Little Peace.’) Deng later studied in Moscow (1926,) becoming associated with Mao Zedong. Deng 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 reacted firmly to the excesses of the Great Leap Forward (1958–59.) During Mao’s 1966–69 Cultural Revolution, Deng was condemned and purged, along with Liu Shaoqi, and dispatched for “re-education” in a tractor factory in Nanchang, but was rehabilitated by Zhou Enlai in 1974, becoming vice premier. When Zhou died in 1976, Xiaoping was again forced into hiding, but following widespread demonstrations, he was reinstated in 1977. By 1978, Deng had become the dominant figure in Chinese politics.

Once in power, Deng played down the memory and teachings of Mao and emphasized the need for socialist modernization instead. He promoted individual enterprise and economic growth while demanding the persistent political dominance of the CCP. Deng continued to stifle opposition, most notably sanctioning the army’s 1989 massacre of 3,000 unarmed pro-democracy Tiananmen Square demonstrators. He granted individuals an unprecedented amount of personal freedom in other spheres.

Deng combined a high degree of pragmatism with nationalism in foreign policy, restoring diplomatic relations with America in 1979 and the Soviet Union in 1989. He insisted on regaining control of all Chinese territories under outside control. He negotiated the incorporation into China of Hong Kong and Macao while continuing to call for unification with Taiwan.

Biographies include Uli Franz’s Deng Xiaoping (1988,) Benjamin Yang’s Deng: A Political Biography (1998,) and Maurice Meisner’s Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic (1999.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Deng Xiaoping

It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.
Deng Xiaoping

It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.
Deng Xiaoping
Topics: Cats

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