Paramount leader at the arrival ceremony of
Deng's visit to the US (1979)|alt= Following Mao's death on 9 September 1976 and the purge of the Gang of Four in October 1976, Premier
Hua Guofeng succeeded as
Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and gradually emerged as the
de facto leader of China. Prior to Mao's death, the only governmental position Deng held was that of First Vice Premier of the State Council, but Hua Guofeng wanted to rid the Party of extremists and successfully marginalised the Gang of Four. On 22 July 1977, Deng was restored to the posts of vice-chairman of the Central Committee, vice-chairman of the Military Commission and Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army. By carefully mobilizing his supporters within the party, Deng outmaneuvered Hua, who had pardoned him, then ousted Hua from his top leadership positions by 1980. In contrast to previous leadership changes, Deng allowed Hua to retain membership in the Central Committee and quietly retire, helping to set the precedent that losing a high-level leadership struggle would not result in physical harm. During his paramount leadership, his official state positions were
Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1978 to 1983 and
Chairman of the Central Military Commission (an
ad hoc body comprising the most senior members of the party elite) of the People's Republic of China from 1983 to 1990, while his official party positions were
Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1977 to 1982, Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party from 1981 to 1989 and Chairman of the
Central Advisory Commission from 1982 to 1987. He was offered the rank of General First Class in 1988 when the PLA restored military ranks, but as in 1955, he once again declined. Even after retiring from the
Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1987 and the Central Military Commission in 1989, Deng continued to exert influence over China's policies until his death in 1997. Important decisions were always taken in Deng's home at No. 11 Miliangku Hutong with a caucus of eight senior party cadres, called "
Eight Elders", especially with
Chen Yun and Li Xiannian. Despite Deng's recognition as paramount leader, in practice these elders governed China as a small collective leadership. Deng ruled as "paramount leader" although he never held the top title of the party, and was able to successively remove three party leaders, including Hu Yaobang. Deng stepped down from the Central Committee and its Politburo Standing Committee. However, he remained as the chairman of the State and Party's Central Military Commission and was still seen as the paramount leader of China rather than General Secretary
Zhao Ziyang and Presidents Li Xiannian and
Yang Shangkun.
Boluan Fanzheng Deng repudiated the Cultural Revolution and, in 1977, launched the "
Beijing Spring", which allowed open criticism of the excesses and suffering that had occurred during the period, and restored the
National College Entrance Examination (Gao Kao) which had been cancelled for ten years during the Cultural Revolution. Meanwhile, he was the impetus for the abolition of the class background system. Under this system, the CCP removed employment barriers to Chinese deemed to be associated with the former landlord class; its removal allowed a faction favoring the restoration of the private market to enter the Communist Party. Deng gradually outmaneuvered his political opponents. By encouraging public criticism of the Cultural Revolution, he weakened the position of those who owed their political positions to that event, while strengthening the position of those like himself who had been purged during that time. Deng also received a great deal of popular support. As Deng gradually consolidated control over the CCP, Hua was replaced by Zhao Ziyang as premier in 1980, and by
Hu Yaobang as party chairman in 1981, despite the fact that Hua was Mao Zedong's designated successor as the "paramount leader" of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic of China. During the Boluan Fanzheng period, the Cultural Revolution was invalidated, and victims of more than 3 million "unjust, false, wrongful cases" by 1976 were officially rehabilitated. Deng's elevation to China's new number-one figure meant that the historical and ideological questions around Mao Zedong had to be addressed properly. Because Deng wished to pursue deep reforms, it was not possible for him to continue Mao's hard-line "class struggle" policies and mass public campaigns. In 1981 the Central Committee of the Communist Party released a document entitled ''
Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China''. Mao retained his status as a "great Marxist, proletarian revolutionary, militarist, and general", and the undisputed founder and pioneer of the country and the People's Liberation Army. "His accomplishments must be considered before his mistakes", the document declared. Deng privately commented shortly after the publication that Mao was "seven parts good, three parts bad". The document also steered the prime responsibility of the Cultural Revolution away from Mao (although it did state that "Mao mistakenly began the Cultural Revolution") to the "counter-revolutionary cliques" of the Gang of Four and Lin Biao.
International affairs director
Christopher C. Kraft (extreme right)Deng prioritized China's modernization and opening up to the outside world, stating that China's "strategy in foreign affairs is to seek a peaceful environment" for the
Four Modernizations. Under Deng's leadership, China opened up to the outside world, to learn from more advanced countries. This decentralized approach led to consideration of a number of interests and views, but also fragmentation of policy institutions and extensive bargaining between different bureaucratic units during the policy-making process. In late 1978, the aerospace company
Boeing announced the sale of
747 aircraft to various airlines in the PRC, and the beverage company
Coca-Cola made public their intention to open a production plant in Shanghai. On 1 January 1979, the United States recognized the People's Republic of China, leaving the (Taiwan) Republic of China's nationalist government to one side, and business contacts between China and the West began to grow. In early 1979, Deng undertook an
official visit to the United States, meeting President Jimmy Carter in Washington as well as several Congressmen. The Chinese insisted that former President
Richard Nixon be invited to the formal White House reception, a symbolic indication of their assertiveness on the one hand, and their desire to continue with the Nixon initiatives on the other. As part of the discussions with Carter, Deng sought United States approval for China's contemplated invasion of Vietnam in the
Sino-Vietnamese war. According to United States National Security Advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter reserved judgment, an action which Chinese diplomats interpreted as tacit approval, and China launched the invasion shortly after Deng's return. Deng took personal charge of the final negotiations with the United States on normalizing foreign relations between the two countries. In response to criticism from within the Party regarding his United States policy, Deng wrote, "I am presiding over the work on the United States. If there are problems, I take full responsibility." Deng used Japan as an example of a rapidly progressing power that set a good example for China economically. Deng described anti-
hegemonism as one of
China's foreign policy priorities. Relations with the Soviet Union improved after
Mikhail Gorbachev took over the Kremlin in 1985, and formal relations between the two countries were finally restored at the
1989 Sino-Soviet Summit. Deng responded to the Western sanctions following the
Tiananmen Square protests by adopting the "twenty-four character guidelines" for China's international affairs: observe carefully (冷静观察), secure China's positions (稳住阵脚), calmly cope with the challenges (沉着应付), hide China's capacities and bide its time (韬光养晦), be good at maintaining a low profile (善于守拙), and never claim leadership (绝不当头). The end of the Cold War and
dissolution of the Soviet Union removed the original motives underlying rapprochement between China and the United States. Deng was motivated by concerns that the United States might curtail support for China's modernization, and adopted a low-profile foreign policy to live with the fact of United States hegemony and focus primarily on domestic development. Deng championed the
Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence stating that they should be used as the "guiding norms of international relations". He emphasized that China should follow the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in managing its foreign relations with countries that were organized according to different political beliefs and social systems.
Reform and opening up At the outset of China's reform and opening up, Deng set out the
Four Cardinal Principles that had to be maintained in the process: (1) the leadership of the Communist Party, (2) the socialist road, (3) Marxism, and (4) the
dictatorship of the proletariat. Overall, reform proceeded gradually, with Deng delegating specific issues to proteges such as Hu Yaobang or Zhao Ziyang, who in turn addressed them under the guiding principle of "
seeking truth from facts" - meaning that the correctness of an approach had to be gauged by its economic results. In Deng's view, socialism could not be considered superior to capitalism unless it improved the lives of the people in material ways. During Reform and Opening-up, he criticized those he deemed as the ideologies of the Cultural Revolution for seeking "poor socialism" and "poor communism" and believing that communism was a "spiritual thing". Deng worked with his team, especially as Zhao Ziyang, who in 1980 replaced Hua Guofeng as premier, and Hu Yaobang, who in 1981 did the same with the post of party chairman. Deng thus took the reins of power and began to emphasize the goals of "four modernizations" (economy, agriculture, scientific and technological development and national defense). He announced an ambitious plan of opening and liberalizing the economy. The last position of power retained by Hua Guofeng, chairman of the Central Military Commission, was taken by Deng in 1981. However, progress toward military modernization went slowly. A
border war with Vietnam in 1977–1979 made major changes unwise. The war puzzled outside observers, but Xiaoming Zhang argues that Deng had multiple goals: stopping Soviet expansion in the region, obtain American support for his four modernizations, and mobilizing China for reform and integration into the world economy. Deng also sought to strengthen his control of the PLA, and demonstrate to the world that China was capable of fighting a real war. Zhang thinks punishment of Vietnam for its invasion of Cambodia was a minor factor. In the event, the Chinese forces did poorly, in terms of equipment, strategy, leadership, and battlefield performance. Deng subsequently used the PLA's poor performance to overcome resistance by military leaders to his military reforms. retiring the elderly and corrupt senior officers and their cronies. He emphasized the recruitment of much better educated young men who would be able to handle the advanced technology when it finally arrived. Instead of patronage and corruption in the officer corps, he imposed strict discipline in all ranks. In 1982 he established a new Commission for Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense to plan for using technology developed in the civilian sector.
Three steps to economic development In 1986, Deng explained to
Mike Wallace on
60 Minutes that some people and regions could become prosperous first in order to bring about common prosperity faster. In October 1987, at the Plenary Session of the National People's Congress, Deng was re-elected as Chairman of the
Central Military Commission, but he resigned as Chairman of the
Central Advisory Commission and was succeeded by Chen Yun. Deng continued to chair and develop the reform and opening up as the main policy, and he advanced the three steps suitable for China's economic development strategy within seventy years: the first step, to double the 1980 GNP and ensure that the people have enough food and clothing, was attained by the end of the 1980s; the second step, to quadruple the 1980 GNP by the end of the 20th century, was achieved in 1995 ahead of schedule; the third step, to increase per capita GNP to the level of the medium-developed countries by 2050, at which point, the Chinese people will be fairly well-off and modernization will be basically realized.
Further reforms Improving relations with the outside world was the second of two important philosophical shifts outlined in Deng's program of reform termed
Gaige Kaifang (
lit. Reforms and Openness). China's domestic social, political, and most notably, economic systems would undergo significant changes during Deng's time. The goals of Deng's reforms were summed up by the
Four Modernizations, those of agriculture, industry, science and technology, and the military. The strategy for achieving these aims of becoming a modern, industrial nation was the
socialist market economy. Deng argued that China was in the
primary stage of socialism and that the duty of the party was to perfect so-called "
socialism with Chinese characteristics", Deng's economic policy prioritized developing China's
productive forces. In Deng's view, this development "is the most fundamental revolution from the viewpoint of historical development[,]" and "[p]oor socialism" is not socialism. Deng openly supported it and it was later adopted nationally. Many other reforms were influenced by the experiences of the
East Asian Tigers. This was in sharp contrast to the pattern of
perestroika undertaken by
Mikhail Gorbachev, in which most major reforms originated with Gorbachev himself. The bottom-up approach of Deng's reforms, in contrast to the top-down approach of
perestroika, was likely a key factor in the success of the former. Deng's reforms actually included the introduction of planned, centralized management of the macro-economy by technically proficient bureaucrats, abandoning Mao's mass campaign style of economic construction. However, unlike the Soviet model, management was indirect through market mechanisms. Deng sustained Mao's legacy to the extent that he stressed the primacy of agricultural output and encouraged a significant decentralization of decision making in the rural economy teams and individual peasant households. At the local level, material incentives, rather than political appeals, were to be used to motivate the labor force, including allowing peasants to earn extra income by selling the produce of their private plots at free market value. Under Deng Xiaoping's leadership, the Cultural Revolution-era trend towards localizing authority over
state-owned enterprises was reversed, and SOE management was again centralized. In alignment with Deng's pragmatism, he praised and substantially improved the reputation of
Qing official Qishan, who was formerly criticised for his pragmatic approach against the British in the
First Opium War.
Export focus In the move toward market allocation, local municipalities and provinces were allowed to invest in industries that they considered most profitable, which encouraged investment in light manufacturing. Thus, Deng's reforms shifted China's development strategy to an emphasis on light industry and
export-led growth. Light industrial output was vital for a developing country coming from a low capital base. With the short gestation period, low capital requirements, and high foreign-exchange export earnings, revenues generated by light manufacturing were able to be reinvested in technologically more advanced production and further capital expenditures and investments. However, in sharp contrast to the similar, but much less successful reforms in the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the
People's Republic of Hungary, these investments were not government mandated. The capital invested in heavy industry largely came from the banking system, and most of that capital came from consumer deposits. One of the first items of the Deng reforms was to prevent reallocation of profits except through taxation or through the banking system; hence, the reallocation in state-owned industries was somewhat indirect, thus making them more or less independent from government interference. In short, Deng's reforms sparked an industrial revolution in China. These reforms were a reversal of the Maoist policy of economic self-reliance. China decided to accelerate the modernization process by stepping up the volume of foreign trade, especially the purchase of machinery from Japan and the West. In October 1978, to exchange the instruments of ratification for the "Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China", Deng Xiaoping visited Japan for the first time and was warmly received by Prime Minister
Takeo Fukuda and others. Deng Xiaoping was only Vice Premier during the time of his meetings with Japanese officials, but the Japanese government received Deng as the effective paramount leader of China due to his long history with the CCP, nonetheless. Deng was deemed the first Chinese leader to receive an audience in addition to Japanese Emperor Showa. A news article from NHK Japan in 1978 reported that Deng diplomatically stated "we talked about our past, but His Majesty's focus on building a better future is something I noticed." Deng's statement suggests the new era of China's political reform through foreign economic diplomacy. Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China is an ongoing pact between the two nations to this day. Article 1 of the treaty describes mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, and mutual non-interference in internal affairs. Article 2 proclaims anti-hegemony. Article 3 discusses the further development of economic and cultural relations between the two countries, and Article 4 addresses the relationship of this treaty with third countries. Although it took six years from the restoration of diplomatic relations for the peace treaty negotiations to be concluded as the "anti-hegemony" clause and the "third country" clause were considered the most contentious, the agreement still informs much of contemporary Sino-Japanese relations. By participating in such export-led growth, China was able to step up the Four Modernizations by attaining certain foreign funds, market, advanced technologies and management experiences, thus accelerating its economic development. From 1980, Deng attracted foreign companies to a series of
Special Economic Zones, where foreign investment and market liberalization were encouraged. The reforms sought to improve labor productivity. New material incentives and bonus systems were introduced. Rural markets selling peasants' homegrown products and the surplus products of communes were revived. Not only did rural markets increase agricultural output, they stimulated industrial development as well. With peasants able to sell surplus agricultural yields on the open market, domestic consumption stimulated industrialization as well and also created political support for more difficult economic reforms. There are some parallels between Deng's
market socialism especially in the early stages, and
Vladimir Lenin's NEP as well as those of
Nikolai Bukharin's economic policies, in that both foresaw a role for private entrepreneurs and markets based on trade and pricing rather than central planning. As academics
Christopher Marquis and Kunyuan Qiao observe, Deng had been present in the Soviet Union when Lenin implemented the NEP, and it is reasonable to infer that it may have impacted Deng's view that markets could exist within socialism. The result of these negotiations was the
Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed on 19 December 1984, which formally outlined the United Kingdom's return of the whole Hong Kong colony to China by 1997. The Chinese government pledged to respect the economic system and civil liberties of the British colony for fifty years after the handover. Deng's theory of
one country, two systems applied to Hong Kong and Macau and Deng intended to also present it as an attractive option to the people of
Taiwan for eventual incorporation of that island, where sovereignty over the territory is still disputed. In 1982, Deng first explained the concept of one country, two systems in relation to Taiwan. Deng's statements during the 1987 drafting of the
Basic Law of Hong Kong showed his view of the principle in the Hong Kong context. At that time, Deng stated that the central government would not intervene in the daily business of Hong Kong, but predicted Hong Kong would sometimes have issues affecting national interests that would require the central government's involvement. In June 1988, Deng stated that "Hong Kong's political system today is neither the British system nor the American system, and it should not transplant the Western ways in the future." The policy applied to urban areas, and included forced abortions. In August 1983, Deng launched the
"Strike hard" Anti-crime Campaign due to the worsening public safety after the Cultural Revolution. A number of people arrested (some even received
death penalty) were children or relatives of government officials at various levels, including the grandson of
Zhu De, demonstrating the principle of "
all are equal before the law". The campaign had an immediate positive effect on public safety, while controversies also arose such as whether some of the legal punishments were too harsh and whether the campaign had long-term positive effect on public safety. Increasing economic freedom was being translated into a greater freedom of opinion, and critics began to arise within the system, including the famous dissident
Wei Jingsheng, who coined the term "fifth modernization" in reference to democracy as a missing element in the renewal plans of Deng Xiaoping. In the late 1980s, dissatisfaction with the authoritarian regime and growing inequalities caused the biggest crisis to Deng's leadership.
Crackdown of Tiananmen Square protests The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, culminating in the June Fourth Massacre, were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in the People's Republic of China between 15 April and 5 June 1989, a year in which many other
communist governments collapsed. The protests were sparked by the death of
Hu Yaobang, a reformist official backed by Deng but ousted by the
Eight Elders and the conservative wing of the politburo. Many people were dissatisfied with the party's slow response and relatively subdued funeral arrangements. Public mourning began on the streets of Beijing and universities in the surrounding areas. In Beijing, this was centered on the
Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square. The mourning became a public conduit for anger against perceived nepotism in the government, the unfair dismissal and early death of Hu, and the behind-the-scenes role of the "old men". By the eve of Hu's funeral, the demonstration had reached 100,000 people on Tiananmen Square. While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership, participants raised the issue of corruption within the government and some voiced calls for economic liberalization within the structure of the government while others called for a less authoritarian and less centralized form of socialism. During the demonstrations, Deng's pro-market ally General Secretary
Zhao Ziyang supported the demonstrators and distanced himself from the Politburo. Martial law was declared on 20 May by the socialist hardliner, Chinese premier
Li Peng, but the
initial military advance on the city was blocked by residents. The movement lasted seven weeks. On 3–4 June, over two hundred thousand soldiers in tanks and helicopters were
sent into the city to quell the protests by force, resulting in hundreds to thousands of casualties. Many ordinary people in Beijing believed that Deng had ordered the intervention, but political analysts do not know who was actually behind the order. To purge sympathizers of Tiananmen demonstrators, the Communist Party initiated a one-and-a-half-year-long program similar to the
Anti-Rightist Movement. Old-timers like Deng Fei aimed to deal "strictly with those inside the party with serious tendencies toward bourgeois liberalization", and more than 30,000 communist officers were deployed to the task. Deng privately told former Canadian Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau that factions of the Communist Party could have grabbed army units and the country had risked a civil war. Two years later, Deng endorsed
Zhu Rongji, a Shanghai Mayor, as a vice-premier candidate. Zhu Rongji had refused to declare
martial law in Shanghai during the demonstrations even though socialist hardliners had pressured him. == Resignation and 1992 southern tour ==