So effusive is the propaganda campaign launched to mark the 110th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s birth that a casual visitor might think it is his body embalmed in Tiananmen Square, rather than that of Mao Zedong.
The pageantry for Deng, China’s late paramount leader who disdained the cult of personality that surrounded his predecessor and elected to have his own ashes spread over the ocean, has included the broadcast of a 48-part biopic on state television and seminars attended by the Chinese Communist party’s top leadership. The fanfare far exceeds the official remembrance of the 120th anniversary of Mao’s birth last December.
Underlying this lionisation of Deng, who faded from China’s political scene 20 years ago and died in 1997, is a very modern agenda. Analysts say Xi Jinping, China’s president, party general secretary and head of the country’s “fifth generation” of leaders, is using the campaign to burnish his own credentials as - like Deng - a transformative figure.