Deng Xiaoping
Topic: Paths to Modernisation: Japan, China, Korea · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Paths to Modernisation"
Meaning
Deng Xiaoping (1904–97) was a Chinese Communist leader. After the Great Leap Forward failed, he and Liu Shaochi tried to change the communes to repair the damage. From 1978 he led China's reforms. He kept tight control by the Communist Party but brought in a "socialist market economy", which mixed party rule with markets and private business. His plan was called the Four Modernisations: science, industry, agriculture and defence.
Example
Deng did not allow political freedom to go with the economic reforms. A wall-poster in December 1978 called democracy the "Fifth Modernisation" and was ignored. In 1989, students who protested in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, were brutally crushed.
Don't confuse with
- Mao Zedong: he led the revolution and launched the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Deng opened up the economy after Mao died.
Related concepts
- Communist Party of China
- Comintern
- Mao Zedong
- Long March
- People's Republic of China
- Great Leap Forward
- People's communes
- Cultural Revolution
- Four Modernisations
- Socialist market economy