Deng Liqun

Deng Liqun
鄧力群
Deng Liqun in Yining, Xinjiang, August 1949
Secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party
In office September 1982 – November 1987
General Secretary	Hu Yaobang
Head of Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party
In office April 1982 – August 1985
Preceded by	Wang Renzhong
Succeeded by	Zhu Houze
Personal details
Born	(1915-11-27)November 27, 1915 Guidong, Hunan, China
Died	February 10, 2015(2015-02-10) (aged 99) Beijing, China
Political party	Chinese Communist Party
Spouse	Luo Liyun
Children	Deng Yingtao
Alma mater	Peking University

Deng Liqun (November 27, 1915 – February 10, 2015) was a Chinese politician and theorist who was one of the leading figures of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the 1980s, most well known for his involvement with the party's propaganda work. Deng was born in Guidong County, Hunan province, and joined the CCP in 1936.^[1] He came from an intellectual family and joined the party out of intellectual commitment.^[2] He was often referred to as "Little Deng", to be distinguished from Deng Xiaoping (no relation), the "Old Deng".^[3]

Purged during the Cultural Revolution, Deng emerged in the 1980s as one of the most vocal members of the hardline wing of the party in the lead-up of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. He advocated for the orthodox Communist-style planned economy and spoke out against market-oriented economic reforms and political liberalization. He 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.