Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997)

DENG XIAOPING WAS a Chinese communist, paramount leader, and political thinker whose reformist ideas and administrative abilities enabled mainland China to overcome the Maoist economic stagnancy and to develop one of the largest and fastest-growing economies in the world. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1924 and took an active part in antiKuomintang (nationalist capitalist party) struggle. After the Communists gained power in 1949, he occupied high offices in Chinese leadership. He was known as a skillful manager and a very convincing pragmatist. “It doesn't matter what color the cat is. It is of the utmost importance that it mouses well,” Deng said of private ownership in agriculture. He was repressed twice during the Maoist Cultural Revolution but came back after Mao Zedong's ...