Deng Xiaoping

In less than three years since Deng Xiaoping and the others had come to work in the Southwest, fundamental changes had taken place. The entire region had begun to thrive as if spring had returned to the land.

GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE PARTY

In July 1952 the Central Committee of the Party transferred Deng Xiaoping to the central organs. This transfer marked the beginning of another important period in his revolutionary career. He served first as both executive Vice-Premier of the Government Administration Council (which was to become the State Council in 1954) and Vice-Chairman of the Financial and Economic Commission, and was soon appointed Director of the Office of Communications and Minister of Finance as well. In 1954, retaining only the position of Vice-Premier, he became in addition Secretary-General of the Party Central Committee, Director of the Organization Department and Vice-Chairman of the National Defense Commission. In 1955, at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee, he was elected to the Committee's Political Bureau. In 1956, at the Party's Eighth National Congress, it was Deng who made the report on the revision of the Party Constitution, and at the First Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee he was elected member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and General Secretary of the Central Committee. Thus, at the age of 52 he became one of the chief leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, together with Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Chen Yun. For the next ten years Deng Xiaoping was General Secretary, directing the routine work of the Secretariat. Referring to this time, he said later, "It was the busiest period in my life."

The decade from September 1956 to May 1966 was a period in which China began to build socialism in an all-round way. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, the whole nation worked for socialist economic and cultural development and scored great achievements. During this time the Party accumulated important experience and also made some serious mistakes. As General Secretary assisting the Chairman and Vice-Chairmen of the Party in managing the day-to-day work of the Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping participated in the policy decisions of the Party and the state. He put forward valuable proposals on many subjects- strengthening Party building, consolidating industrial enterprises, improving their management, introducing the system of workers' conferences and so on.