What is the name of this former leader of the People's Republic of China, sitting next to Jimmy Carter?
Deng Xiaoping.
Rising to power in 1978 after forcing Hua Guofeng (Mao Zedong’s designated successor) out of the throne, Deng Xiaoping is known as the “Architect of Modern China”. He led China through a series of economic and social reforms, such as replacing a centralized, planned economy with a “socialist market economy”. His reforms centered around the idea of the “four modernizations” – economy, agriculture, scientific and technological and national defense and included opening up markets to foreign investment, introducing the vast Chinese workforce into the global market, de-collectivization of agriculture, granting more rights and incentives to producers, allowing the existence of private businesses and price control lifting.
He was, however, criticized for the way his government dealt with the 1989 Tinanmen Square protests.
