- published: 04 Aug 2006
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Deng Xiaoping (IPA: [tə̂ŋ ɕjɑ̀ʊpʰǐŋ] ( listen); 22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy. While Deng never held office as the head of state, head of government or General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (historically the highest position in Communist China), he nonetheless served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to 1992. As the core of the second generation leaders Deng shared his power with the two most powerful men after him: Li Xiannian and Chen Yun.
Born into a peasant background in Guang'an, Sichuan, China, Deng studied and worked in France in the 1920s, where he was influenced by Marxism. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1923. Upon his return to China he worked as a political commissar in rural regions and was considered a "revolutionary veteran" of the Long March. Following the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Deng worked in Tibet and other southwestern regions to consolidate Communist control. He was also instrumental in China's economic reconstruction following the Great Leap Forward in the early 1960s. His economic policies were at odds with the political ideologies of Chairman Mao Zedong. As a result, he was purged twice during the Cultural Revolution but regained prominence in 1978 by outmaneuvering Mao's chosen successor, Hua Guofeng.
Deng Xiaoping
A true Asada king
Lay dying in Shanghai
A comet tracing through the sky
Chairman Mao
Heard thunder in the dawn
The old guard’s come and gone
And underneath our world’s a drone
While my grandfather floats in the sea
All the angels stare at me
The dome of the sky fades away
All I see is outer space
While my grandfather floats in the sea
Chairman Mao laughs joyfully
The dome of the sky fades away
And every now and then I see some outer space
Off the coast
The shipping lanes are closed
The fields have all gone dry
The satellites are standing by
But Bay-one
He’s whirling like a Khan
Mole’s like a swan