Deng Xiaoping

The Reformer Deng became leader in 1976, after Mao died. He accepted that while Mao was still a great revolutionary leader – some of what he did was wrong (7 parts good, 3 parts bad is still the official line). Deng himself had been imprisoned at one stage under Mao, and so there was a bit of personal animosity there, but he could not afford to be too critical, as in order to maintain control of the country he had to show support for the previous system. In an authoritarian regime, when the power is all vested in one person, and that person dies, it is the most dangerous and unstable time and can easily descend into revolution and lack of order. Deng wanted to reform a lot of what Mao had done – but had to do so carefully

No more cult of personality One of Deng’s early reforms was to make sure that no single person could have as much power over the people as Mao had done – he wanted to make sure that it was the CPC which maintained power. He put in place rules which meant that no leader would be able to stay on for more than a generation (11 years)

Gaige kaifang – reforms and openness Deng wanted to rebuild China as a more significant economic and world political power – so China needed to modernise. Deng called the new China – Socialist with Chinese Characteristics Open Door Policy – China was going to start trading with the world Special Economic Zones – companies from abroad could move to special areas in China and set up factories and take advantage of conditions which made it cheaper to produce products there Foreign Relations – Deng met leaders from around the world to promote Chinese interests Local Elections – local councils began to hold elections for representatives Population control – In order to increase living standards, the population of China would have to stop growing so quickly…

unrest As Gaige Kaifang across China spread, Deng faced two problems . On the one hand, traditionalist Mao supporters thought his reforms were going too far and he was making China a capitalist country – people in rural areas were worried about the move away from communism and what this would mean for the “Iron Rice Bowl”. On the other hand, many young people, particularly students, thought his reforms were not going fast enough, and they wished to see more democracy in China. Deng had no plans for democracy as we know it in the West – he still believed in maintaining the ultimate power of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Protests, uniting these two groups, began in the late 1980’s

Tiananmen Square - 1989 Protestors marched to Beijing in 1989 Deng was no prepared to negotiate and wanted to send a tough message to those protesting, he might have been a reformer, but he was not interested in democracy. He sent the army out to smash the protests Nobody knows for sure how many people were killed in the suppression of the protests – but it is estimated that there were at last 1000 deaths. The protests led to one of the most famous photographs ever taken