Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping, the leader behind China’s reforms story, also transformed the approach by which the party ruled.

In 2018, foreign journalists noted how portraits at an exhibit for China’s 40 years of economic reforms—the Deng Xiaoping era—downplayed Deng and elevated president Xi Jingping and his father instead.

Since Deng Xiaoping embraced market reforms in 1979, the Middle Kingdom has gone from strength to strength.

In 1989, Fang Lizhi wrote an open letter to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping demanding the release of political prisoners.

Chen's exaggerated report circulated among more senior leaders, and was used by then Premier Li Peng to alarm Deng Xiaoping.

Deng Xiaoping invented the Four Modernizations, which justified the transformation of the planned economy to a market economy.