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China Deng Xiaoping Consolidates Power
Deng's second rehabilitation marked another milestone in the career
of one of the party's most remarkable leaders. Born in Sichuan
Province in 1904, Deng was the son of a wealthy landlord. A bright
student, he went to France on a work-study program in 1920. There
Deng, like many other Chinese students, was radicalized and joined
the nascent Chinese Communist Party. He had returned to China by
1926 and, after the party was forced underground in 1927, became
involved in guerrilla activities
(see Republican China
, ch. 1).
Eventually he joined the main body of the party and Red Army in
Jiangxi Province. Deng participated in the
Long March (see Glossary)
and rose through the ranks of the Red Army to become a
senior political commissar during the war against Japan (1937-45)
and the Chinese civil war (1945-49). After the establishment of the
People's Republic of China in 1949, he was assigned his home
province of Sichuan, where he was made first secretary of the
Southwest Regional Party Bureau. In 1952 Deng was transferred to
Beijing and given several key positions, the highest of which was
vice premier of the State Council--a remarkable development that he
probably owed to Mao's favor.
In 1956 Deng was promoted over several more-senior party
leaders to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and
became secretary general of the party, that is, head of the party
Secretariat. As secretary general, Deng became involved in the dayto -day implementation of party policies and had immediate access to
the resources of the entire party bureaucracy. Consequently, Deng's
power grew immensely. Because he perceived Mao's radical economic
policies to have been harmful to China's development after 1958,
Deng began to work more closely with State Chairman Liu Shaoqi.
Deng's behavior irritated Mao, and his stress on results over
ideological orthodoxy struck Mao as
"revisionism" (see Glossary).
During the Cultural Revolution, Deng was branded the "number-two
capitalist roader in the party" (Liu Shaoqi was the "number-one
capitalist roader," having allegedly abandoned socialism, see
The Cultural Revolution Decade, 1966-76, ch. 1). In 1967
Deng was driven from power and sent to work in a tractor factory in
Jiangxi Province.
After the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and the shock of
an attempted military coup in 1971 by Lin Biao, Premier Zhou Enlai
apparently recommended that Deng be brought back to aid in dealing
with increasingly complex domestic and international issues. Mao
agreed, and Deng returned in April 1973 as a vice premier. He
rejoined the Political Bureau in December, becoming more active in
national affairs as Zhou Enlai's health weakened. By early 1975 he
was in charge of the work of the Central Committee as one of its
vice chairmen. From this powerful vantage point, Deng concentrated
on moderating the effects of the more radical aspects of the
policies introduced during the Cultural Revolution and on focusing
national attention on economic development. He also continued to
build his own political influence through restoring to high office
many old cadres who had been purged during the Cultural Revolution.
Mao again began to distrust Deng and, after Zhou's death, decided
that Deng should once again be removed from his positions.
Deng has been described as aggressive, brash, impatient, and
self-confident. He inspired respect among Chinese officials as a
capable administrator and a brilliant intellect. He did not,
however, inspire loyalty and devotion, and he admitted that his
hard-driving personality often alienated others. In contrast to
Mao, Deng offered no expansive socialist vision. Rather, Deng's
message was a practical one: to make the Chinese people more
prosperous and China a modern socialist state. Deng's pragmatic
style arose primarily from his dedication to placing China among
the world's great powers.
Deng consolidated his power and influence by removing his
opponents from their power bases, elevating his proteges to key
positions, revising the political institutional structure, retiring
elderly party leaders who either were hesitant about his reform
programs or too weak and incompetent to implement them, and raising
up a replacement generation of leaders beholden to him and
apparently enthusiastic about the reform program. As a first step
toward achieving these goals, Deng set out to remove Hua Guofeng,
apparently a firm believer in Mao's ideals, from the three pivotal
positions of chairman of the party and of its powerful Central
Military Commission and premier of the State Council. At that time,
Deng was on the Political Bureau Standing Committee, vice chairman
of the party Central Military Commission, and vice premier of the
State Council.
At the Third Plenum, four new members were elected to the
Political Bureau, all to varying degrees supporters of the reform
program. Hu Yaobang, an energetic protege of Deng Xiaoping, was
elected, as was Wang Zhen, a Deng stalwart. Also elected were Deng
Yingchao, widow of Zhou Enlai, and Chen Yun, architect of China's
1950s economic policy. Chen also became head of the newly
established Central Commission for Discipline Inspection
(see Other Party Organs
, ch. 10). Following the plenum, Hu Yaobang was
appointed secretary general of the party and head of its Propaganda
Department. Further personnel changes beneficial to Deng occurred
at the Fifth Plenum, held February 23-29, 1980. Hu Yaobang was
elevated to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, as was
another Deng protege, Zhao Ziyang. With these promotions,
accompanied by the forced resignations of members associated with
the Cultural Revolution, the Standing Committee was comprised of
seven members, four of whom were strongly committed to party and
economic reform.
Hua Guofeng's position was eroded further in mid-1980, when he
was replaced as premier by Zhao Ziyang. A fast-rising provincial
party official, Zhao spent his early career in Guangdong Province,
where he gained expertise in managing agricultural affairs. Unlike
Hua, whose political status had improved during the Cultural
Revolution, Zhao Ziyang was purged in 1967 for supporting the
policies of Mao's opponents. After his rehabilitation in 1972, Zhao
worked briefly in Nei Monggol Autonomous Region (Inner Mongolia)
and then returned to Guangdong Province. In 1975, a peak period in
Deng's influence, Zhao was sent to troubled Sichuan Province as
party first secretary. Under Zhao's leadership Sichuan Province
returned to political and economic health. Zhao believed firmly in
material incentives, and he promoted experiments in returning
decision-making authority to the local work units, rather than
centralizing it exclusively in provincial-level or central
administrative bureaus.
Hua Guofeng's political isolation deepened when at the Central
Committee's Sixth Plenum, in June 1981, he was replaced as party
chairman by General Secretary Hu Yaobang. This key meeting
reevaluated party history, including the Cultural Revolution, and
charged Mao with major errors in his later years. Hua, having been
identified with the "two whatevers" group ("support whatever policy
decisions Chairman Mao made and follow whatever instructions
Chairman Mao gave"), was marked for political oblivion. At this
same meeting, Deng Xiaoping assumed Hua's former position as
chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, advancing his
goal of ridding the top military ranks of reform opponents. With
these developments, Deng was poised for an even more thorough
consolidation of the reform leadership at the upcoming Twelfth
National Party Congress.
Data as of July 1987
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