Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping (Simplified Chinese: 邓小平; Traditional Chinese: 鄧小平; pinyin: Dèng Xiǎopíng; Wade-Giles: Teng Hsiao-p'ing; August 22, 1904–February 19, 1997) was a leader in the Communist Party of China (CCP). Deng never held office as the head of state or the head of government, but served as the de facto leader of the People's Republic of China from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. He pioneered "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and Chinese economic reform, also known as the "socialist market economy". Critics and supporters alike have claimed many of his reforms helped bring his country closer to capitalism.

Deng formed the core of the "second generation" CCP leadership. Under his tutelage, China developed one of the fastest growing economies in the world while keeping the Communist Party of China in tight overall control.

Trivia
Based on the Chinese government's own admission, Deng Xiaoping is the senior Chinese leader who had emperienced most numerous assassination attempts. According to the recent declassified information after Hu Jintao came to power, there were seven attempts on Deng's life from 1960's to 1980's and most of the cases remain unsolved, and all of them rooted by the Maoists' opposition to Deng's reform:

1. On December 21, 1969, Deng Xiaoping was exiled to an abandoned infantry school at a place named Wangcheng Hill in Xinjian County of Jiangxi province for his house arrest under the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee's executive order #1. In the morning of December 23, 1969, a band of militia stormed and machine gunned the compound. However, the militia mistook the guards' residence for that of Deng and many of them were killed when the guards returned fire. The incident was later blamed on Lin Biao, but in the early 1980's, it was decided that Lin Biao was not involved. The case remains unsolved today.

2. On February 21, 1973, an Ilyushin Il-14 was sent from Beijing to Jiangxi to take Deng Xiaoping back to Beijing to resume his work, but on the same day, an urgent order from Beijing instructed Deng to take train instead, with additional protection of a squad personally led by the chief-of-staff of the local military district. It was reported that this change of plan was conducted by Zhou Enlai to protect Deng, and the Ilyushin Il-14 Deng originally planned to take exploded above Anhui on its way back. This case was never solved.

3. In September 1975, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Qing, and Hua Guofeng went to Shanxi, and one evening, when Deng was taking his daily walk, a shadow opened fire on Deng and missed. The guards returned fire but missed their targets, and the assassin was never caught and the case became a cold case file.

4. In April 1976, Deng Xiaoping was once again removed from his post and was exiled to a military reception center at Yuquan Mountain in the suburb of Beijing for yet another house arrest. The same evening Deng had arrived, the Number 5 building where Deng resided was caught on fire and later investigation revealed that the fire started on the first floor, the exact floor where Deng resided, and stopped exactly after every room in the first floor was burned. The official statement was due to short-ciruit, but it was obvious that this was an assassination attempt. Deng Xiaoping was ordered by his guards assigned by Ye Jianying to go somewhere else to study Mao's work and thus was not in the building when the fire struck, and after the incident, he was immediately moved back in to the city. The case remains unsolved.

5. Following the assassination attempt three months earlier in April, there was another one. In July 1976, Deng was instructed to go to Chengde, Hebei to escape the summer heat. Deng refused to go by claiming that he needed to go to the hospital for his annual physical. When the Japanese car assigned to take him was returned to ministry of defense, it was discovered that the front axle was about to break and nobody would survive the consequent crash. The case is still open today.

6. In March 1980, Deng Xiaoping went to inspect troops in Jinan military region. As Deng was returning to the conference room from outside, one of the local guards shouted:'Down the capitalist Deng Xiaoping! Guard the Chairman Mao's revolutionary thought! Revenge for the vice-chairman Jiang Qing!' and opened fire on Deng at the same time. Thanks to Deng's body guards' quick reaction, Deng was not harmed and the assassin was quickly subdued. It was discovered the assassin was an ardent Maoist and it appeared he acted alone. However, most people believed that somebody was behind this.

7. In February 1988, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, and Yang Shangkun went to Shanghai for the Chinese New Year, and resided in the Western Suburb Hotel. Four men claimed to be a Maoist Combat Team managed to penetrate the security and had a gunfight with the guards, resulting the killing of the three of the four, and the last one arrested. From these Maoists, maps of Deng's residence, pistols with silencers, explosives, and incendiaries were found. Again, barely anyone believes the official statement that these Maoists acted alone.