Early Years
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Deng Xiaoping had been purged from the Party during the cultural revolution however he had found himself back in a position of power and was mentioned in the media again in 1973 after attending a banquet. Whilst this was not the end of the struggle for Deng who would have to deal with coming problems involving the Gang of Four.
Deng was pretty much in control of the day-to-day running of the government whilst Zhou Enlai was dealing with visiting dignitaries. Zhou Enlai had introduced the idea of the Four Modernisations to bring China into the modern word and this would be crucial in the coming years for Deng's own economic reforms. In 1975 Deng was elected the first deputy Prime minister and Chief of Staff of China. This was a short lived success though due to the Tiananmen Incident in1976. Jiang Qing had put the responsibility of those protests and had Deng relieve of his powers. |
The Reformer |
Deng returned to power in 1977 and so it had become clear that the majority of the power in China laid with Deng Xiaoping. It was with this return that Deng would start to bring in many economic reforms. The historic Third Plenum meeting was where the the Four Modernisations came to the fore of Party discussion. This was a triumph for Deng and he's reform supporters who finally had the opportunity to open up China to the world, economically.
Deng's biggest change and arguably the one which angered many of the older generation of Party members was Deng's reform in the agriculture sector. in 1979 two draft policies were introduce which highlighted the details of this transformation. Hidden in all the suggestions and changes was a proposal to introduce a 'responsibility system' amongst Chinese farmers. This was a drastic change from the People's Communes idea which involved collective land farming. The new system require all the collective land to be returned back to individual families. |
The Hardliner
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Deng Xiaoping and all his reforms and work in getting China to function in the modern world would be tarnished by events during 1986-9. During the 1986 democracy movement, Deng was the one to relieve Hu Yaobang of his position. The reformer had been pressured by the conservative faction in the party and as such this came to reflect on him.
However it was Deng's hard crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 which would tarnish he's political career. It is widely known that the brutal force which the PLA used to suppress the demonstrators was endorsed by him. |
Legacy |
The legacy which Deng Xiaoping would have would always be haunted by the events at Tiananmen Square. However Deng can be attributed with some of the incredible economic growth which China has witnessed during the 1980's and 1990's. It was he's policies and reforms which really brought China to the fore as a developed country.
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