32 Facts About Deng Liqun

Deng Liqun was a Chinese politician and theorist who was one of the leading figures of the Chinese Communist Party during the 1980s, most well known for his involvement with the party's propaganda work.

Deng Liqun came from an intellectual family and joined the party out of intellectual commitment.

Deng Liqun was often referred to as "Little Deng", to be distinguished from Deng Xiaoping, the "Old Deng".

Deng Liqun advocated for the orthodox Communist-style planned economy and spoke out against market-oriented economic reforms and political liberalization.

Deng Liqun retreated from active politics in 1987, after failing to secure enough internal support to gain a seat on the CCP Politburo, which was partly attributed to his hardline ideological stance, but continued to agitate for the hardline line.

Deng Liqun was born into a wealthy land-owning family in Guidong County, Hunan province, in 1915.

Deng Liqun's father passed the imperial civil service examination, but never became an official, instead opening the first Western-style school in the county.

Deng Liqun went to Beiping in 1935, enrolling first at the Peking Academy, then entered Peking University a year later, where he studied economics and became a devoted student activist.

Deng Liqun left college that year for Yan'an, Shaanxi, the wartime de facto center of the CCP, to join the party and follow Mao.

Deng Liqun played a major role in the suppression of local rebellions and in enacting land reforms in the vast western region.

Later, Deng Liqun returned to Beijing to serve as secretary to President Liu Shaoqi, and the deputy chief editor of the party's theory publication Red Flag.

Deng Liqun was purged during the Cultural Revolution as a "capitalist roader" because he was Liu Shaoqi's secretary.

Deng Liqun was politically rehabilitated in 1974, serving on the State Council's political research office under Deng Xiaoping.

Deng Liqun was among the Chinese leadership who contended that Reform and Opening Up made China more susceptible to the Western peaceful evolution strategy.

In 1975, Deng Liqun was assigned as a senior member of the Party Research Office, subsequently the Political Research Office in the State Council, along with Hu Qiaomu, Yu Guangyuan, Wu Lengxi, Hu Sheng, Xiong Fu and Li Xin.

Deng Liqun was vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences between 1978 and 1980.

Deng Liqun mobilized internal opposition to liberal reforms in the early 1980s through his position as chief of propaganda and ideology.

Deng Liqun was head of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party from 1982 to 1985.

Deng Liqun continued by saying while some people opposed the "Four Cardinal Principles" outright, others were more discrete, bringing ideas from the West and labeling them as "new".

Deng Liqun's candidacy was supported by conservative stalwarts such as Chen Yun and Li Xiannian, as well as his former patron Wang Zhen.

Deng Xiaoping's chief protege Zhao Ziyang, then serving as Premier, vehemently opposed Deng Liqun's assuming the party's top office.

Indeed, Zhao, who was initially reluctant to become General Secretary, later remarked that fear of an ideological hardliner like Deng Liqun assuming the post made him more determined to take on the office himself.

At the 13th Party Congress, Deng Liqun was tapped to replace another conservative, Hu Qiaomu, on the Politburo.

However, during elections for the 13th Central Committee, Deng Liqun reportedly received the lowest vote total of any candidate, and under new election procedures in which there were more candidates than positions, was not even elected to the 175-member Central Committee, making him ineligible for the Politburo position.

Deng Liqun said the failure to get elected caused him great embarrassment.

However, Deng Liqun continued to agitate for hardline causes through his writing and personal influence.

In 2001, the 85-year-old Deng Liqun published an open letter denouncing the so-called "Three Represents", Jiang's theoretical contribution to CCP ideology which essentially allowed private businesspeople to join the CCP.

In October 2005, Deng Liqun published an autobiographical work entitled Twelve Years in limited circulation in Hong Kong, which recounted his role in the major political events during that period.

Deng Liqun was known to be married twice; his second marriage was to Luo Liyun, with whom he had a son and a daughter.

Deng Liqun's son, Deng Liqun Yingtao, was a member of the Rural Development Group, a group of intellectuals who discussed Chinese rural development issues, in the early 1980s.

Deng Liqun outlived his son, who died in March 2012 after an illness.

Deng Liqun had two daughters from an earlier marriage which ended in divorce.