Deng Liqun

Early Life

Deng Liqun was born on 27 November 1915 in Guidong, Hunan. He studied economics at Peking University in Beijing, took part in the December 9th Movement of 1935, joined the CCP in 1936, and then went to Yan'an.

Xinjiang, Liu Shaoqi's Secretary and the Cultural Revolution

After 1949 Deng worked in Xinjiang alongside Wang Zhen. By accounts of the period, the hard-line policies the two pursued there raised Mao's concern that they would inflame ethnic tensions, and both were transferred out. Back in Beijing he became secretary to Liu Shaoqi and deputy editor-in-chief of Red Flag, the Party's theoretical journal. During the Cultural Revolution he was attacked as a "capitalist roader."

Return and Theoretical Work

In 1974–75 Deng returned to work alongside Deng Xiaoping, joining the State Council's Political Research Office. From 1978 to 1980 he was Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. On 19 March 1980 he was among those present when Deng Xiaoping gave his talk on drafting the "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China."

Propaganda Chief and the Campaign against Spiritual Pollution

From April 1982 to August 1985 Deng headed the CCP Propaganda Department, and from September 1982 to November 1987 he sat on the Central Secretariat, making him one of the principal figures in charge of ideology in the early reform era. On 4 June 1983, in a speech at the Central Party School, he became the first to use the term "spiritual pollution," directing it at writings on humanism and alienation; at the end of October that year he accompanied Hu Qiaomu to People's Daily to announce personnel decisions under which deputy editor-in-chief Wang Ruoshui was dismissed. In the line struggles of the reform era he was widely regarded as a leading representative of the Party's conservatives.

Defeat and Final Years

At the 13th Party Congress in 1987 Deng failed to win election to the Central Committee and subsequently withdrew from leadership posts. He recounted the years 1975 to 1987 in his memoir Twelve Springs and Autumns. He died in Beijing on 10 February 2015; that November the People's Publishing House published his autobiographical Deng Liqun in His Own Words (1915–1974).