Deng Zihui

Deng Zihui, a native of Fujian, was born on 17 August 1896 in the city of Longyan into a family of impoverished rural scholars.^[3][4] After attending secondary school in China, he decided to study in Japan,^[4] but he was forced to drop out and return to China after a year due to lung disease.^[5] In September 1923, Deng founded the Rock Sound newspaper to spread Marxist ideas.^[6] Between 1917 and 1928 he briefly worked as a teacher, and then he began working as a salesman in his family's business.^[4] This experience familiarised him with market mechanisms and with the organic links between urban and rural economies.^[4]

The revolutionary surge in the 1920s drew Deng into political action. He initially joined the Kuomintang and then, in December 1926, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).^[3][4] In 1928, Deng Zihui began land reform experiments in Minxi.^[7]: 48 His efforts included a bottom-up method of policy development: leaders would consult with locals and adopt their practical suggestions while reserving broader policy questions and expansion for Communist Party evaluation.^[7]: 48 Some scholars view Deng (as opposed to Mao) as the first to experiment with land reform through the establishment of "model villages" and the dissemination of "model experiences".^[7]: 48 By 1930, the experiments with land reform in Minxi had been widely disseminated in Communist Party publications and became an important point of reference for the Jiangxi Soviet's land policies from 1931 to 1934.^[7]: 48

Deng organised many guerrilla strikes in his home province of Fujian.^[8] He was put in charge of finance in the Ruijin soviet government of 1931–1933.^[4] After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, in 1938, he became a major military leader of the newly created New Fourth Army.^[8] During the course of the wars Deng participated in, he became a close associate of Mao Zedong, and he belonged in the small circle of Mao's faithful comrades.^[4][8]

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Deng suffered from hepatitis and diabetes, but he continued to work.^[9] He dominated both the party's and the state's policies throughout the period 1953–1962 and he often came into conflict with Mao Zedong over agricultural issues.^[8] Following his appointment to head the party's new Rural Work Department in early 1953, Deng became the Vice Premier of China in 1954, overseeing agriculture, forestry, fisheries, hydraulics, trade and finance in the rural sector.^[4] During the initial phases of agricultural collectivization, he supported proposals for the redistribution of land to poor peasants from wealthier peasants and landlords.^[8] However, during the mid-1950s he reverted to his early support for moderate policies. Deng became a strong defender of peasant property rights and began opposing the policy of forced agricultural collectivization pursued by Mao, especially after the Great Leap Forward.^[8] He relied on extensive investigations into the rural economy to support the legal protection of peasant property rights while advocating against policies involving extreme egalitarianism, opposing excessive government grain requisitions, the state monopoly on agricultural pricing and the frequent and rapid transfer of property ownership.^[8] Deng's proposals inaugurated major agricultural reforms such as the 'household contract system' (包产到户, baochan daohu), which concerned the country's food crisis.^[8] The system was supported by the chief members of the politburo, such as Tian Jiaying, Chen Yun and Deng Xiaoping, but when it was proposed to Mao, he refused to consider it because he believed it pointed in the direction of capitalism.^[4]

During the Central Committee Work Conference at Beidaihe (6 August 1962 – 24 August 1962) the agricultural questioned was placed first.^[4] After Mao Zedong's speech on a general leaders' meeting in 6 August, the themes of class struggle, criticism of the 'winds of individual farming' (单干风, danganfeng) and 'winds of darkness' (黑暗风, hei’anfang) dominated discussions in meetings held by regional groups.^[4] Mao used a central structure (中心小组, zhongxin xiaozu), comprising members of the politburo and a number of regional leaders, to centralize topics of discussion and channel the opinions expressed.^[4] Deng now felt that he was being directly targeted and, on 10 August, he tried to defend himself against attacks by Li Jingquan, Chen Boda and Ke Qingshi. He reminded to them that the 'responsibility system for contracting work and output' (包产责任制, baochan zerenzhi) had been ratified by the CCP as early as 1957. This policy had been undermined after 1958, but its resumption would improve collective farming.^[4] Deng stated that the 'farming responsibility system' (责任田, zerentian) could not be considered a form of individual farming.^[4] However, on the following day, Mao defamed Deng, by describing him as an individual 'devoid of any intellectual predisposition in favour of the socialist revolution'. Later on, Mao's attacks took the form of comments that he implanted into speeches by other leaders. He also distributed an old document from the Rural Work Department in order to stigmatise Deng's change of position. Additionally, in one harsh handwritten note, Mao recalled some supposed 'serious and historic errors' committed by Deng at the beginning of the 1950s.^[4] Shortly after, the Rural Work Department which Deng was in charge of, was accused by Mao of 'having done nothing useful for the past ten years' and dissolved.^[4]

Deng was persecuted by Lin Biao and Jiang Qing and purged from all positions during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976).^[8] Beset with illness and bereft of official protection, Deng died from an accident on 10 December 1972 in Beijing.^[3][4] He was posthumously rehabilitated and his reputation was restored.^[10] Because of his efforts to resist hasty collectivization and his pioneering advocacy of the responsibility system, Deng became a 'hero before his time' in recent historical reconstructions.^[11] In 1987, the 'Deng Zihui Memorial Hall' was built in Dongxiao.^[6] A statue of Deng was placed in the middle of the hall.^[6] A biography of him was written in 1996.^[8]