Deng Pufang, the eldest son of former mainland leader Deng Xiaoping , has retired as chief of the China Disabled Persons' Federation after 20 years in charge, state media has said.
Xinhua said wheelchair-bound female writer Zhang Haidi , the federation's deputy chairwoman, would succeed Mr Deng after being elected as new head at the organisation's fifth national congress, which ended yesterday in Beijing. It said the congress had also decided that Mr Deng, 64, should serve as the federation's honourable chairman.
Mr Deng is founder of the federation, which represents nearly 83 million disabled people on the mainland. He is also a vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee.
He has been confined to a wheelchair since 1968. Mr Deng became a paraplegic after being crippled by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution because his father was branded a capitalist advocate by Mao Zedong .
Mr Deng vowed to fight for benefits for the disabled, and founded the China Welfare Fund for the Disabled in 1984 and the federation four years later.
In 1990, he also set up the Chinese Rehabilitation and Research Association for the Mentally Disabled, a move to push Beijing legislative authorities to recognise mental illnesses that could also be included with the disabilities, which took place one year later.
Mr Deng was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Prize in 2003 for his work in protecting the rights of disabled people in China.