OUTSIDE China there are two radically different images of Deng Xiaoping. One is as a communist moderniser acceptable to the capitalist world: an image that first emerged during the late 70s and early 80s, and surfaced again during the early 90s when the motivation for reform seemed to be flagging inside China itself.
Well before the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the CCP under his leadership abandoned the political strait-jacket Mao had imposed on the PRC during the Cultural Revolution, and decided on a programme of reform and modernisation which was based to a large extent on foreign economic involvement in China.
There was an urgent need for China to improve its image abroad and its foreign relations. Deng Xiaoping was a key player in those efforts, speaking at the United Nations and touring the world, visiting the United States, Japan, Western Europe and Southeast Asia at the head of government delegations.
Appearing on television in a ten-gallon hat when in Houston did his and China's cause no harm at all. A short man with a round face, he projected a comfortable image like everyone's favourite uncle.
The second image of Deng is less comfortable to the West. In 1989 the CCP under Deng's leadership suppressed popular demonstrations throughout China, often quite brutally.
This confrontation between the population on the one hand, and the CCP and the Government of China, on the other, came to a head on June 4 with the forced clearing of demonstrators from Tiananmen Square by armed troops of the PLA and the subsequent considerable loss of life.