Deng Xiaoping is the core of the second generation of Chinese leadership. He propagated the concept of "socialism with Chinese characteristics".

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Deng led several military campaigns against the Kuomintang military, and his troops liberated the entire southwest of the country.

After he again came into power in 1978, he led China on the path of far-reaching economic reforms. Under his "reform and opening up policy", Deng opened the country to foreign investment and encouraged the development of a market economy and private sector. His reforms had helped lift hundreds of millions of Chinese out of extreme poverty.