Deng_Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (; 22 August 1904 19 February 1997) was a prominent Chinese politician. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng became a reformer who led China towards market economics. While Deng never held office as the head of state or the head of government, he nonetheless served as the Paramount leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to the early 1990s.Inheriting a China wrought with social and institutional woes left over from the devastating Cultural Revolution and other mass political movements of the Mao era, Deng was the core of the second generation Chinese leadership.