Deng Xiaoping,a brilliant leader in the shaping of modern China,the Architect of China's Reform and Opening-up,was born in the province of Sichuan on August 22 in 1904.His former name was Deng Xixian.He had studied in France since 1920 to 1925,where he joined the communist Party,and then in the Soviet Union for one year.In March 1927 he returned to China and work at the Sun-Yat-sen Military and political Academy.During the period of Jiangxi Soviet（1928-1934）,he became associated with Mao Zedong.In 1957 ,Deng became General Secretary of the Communist Party and ran the country's daily affairs.In 1966,Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution,Deng fell out of favor and was criticized and purged from his offices,but returned in 1974 as vice premier,vice chairman of Communist Party.Again he was dismissed in 1976,but in the same year after Mao’s death,he was restored once more to power.After 1978 he took China through a rapid course of pragmatic reform and succeeded in setting China on the road to socialist modernization.In 1997,he died from Parkinson's disease at the age of 93.