Deng Yingchao (; 4 February 1904 – 11 July 1992) was a prominent Chinese revolutionary, politician, and women's rights advocate who played a significant role in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for over six decades. She served as Chairwoman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1983 to 1988 and was the wife of Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People's Republic of China.

Born in Guangxi in 1904, Deng emerged as a pioneering feminist leader in Tianjin around the 1920s, where she founded women's organizations and publications advocating for education, employment rights, and opposition to arranged marriage and foot-binding. After joining the Chinese Communist Party and marrying Zhou Enlai in 1925, she experienced the Long March and remained active in Party efforts through the Second Sino-Japanese War. Following the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949, she held influential positions and played key roles in drafting China's Marriage Law, promoting women's participation in land reform, and advocating birth control policies. In the Reform Era, she was appointed to the CCP Politburo and led international activities until her health declined in the late 1980s.

Early life and education

thumb|left|110px|Yingchao in her youth

Deng Yingchao was born on 4 February 1904 as Deng Yu'ai (邓玉爱) in Nanning, Guangxi, with ancestral roots in Guangshan County, Henan. Her father, Deng Tingzhong (邓庭忠), practiced martial arts from an early age and later passed the imperial military examination, after which he was appointed as a garrison commander in Nanning. Her mother, Yang Zhende (杨振德), was born into a wealthy family in Changsha, Hunan, and was literate and educated in Traditional Chinese medicine. Following her family's decline, Yang married Deng Tingzhong.

Influenced by feudal patriarchal values, Deng Tingzhong preferred sons over daughters. Upon Deng Yingchao's birth, he intended to give her away, but Yang resisted desperately, even threatening her own life, to keep and raise the child. Deng Tingzhong showed little affection toward his daughter growing up. When Deng Yingchao was about three years old, her father was exiled to Xinjiang, placing the financial burden entirely on her mother. As the family of a convicted official, Yang was no longer permitted to practice medicine in Nanning, so she decided to leave the city. To make a living and support the family, the mother and daughter moved from place to place, living successively in several cities including Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin. Despite living in poverty, these experiences broadened Deng's horizons and enriched her knowledge. Her mother taught her to read and traditional Chinese culture and opposed foot-binding for her daughter. At the age of seven, Deng began learning weaving and knitting to earn money. Around that time, her father died in Xinjiang.

Also in 1919, Deng Yingchao helped establish the Tianjin Women Patriots' Association (Tianjin nüjie aiguo tongzhihui, 天津女界爱国同志会), which called on women to step beyond the boundaries of the household and societal expectations to participate in the "patriotic movement". As the head of its lecture group, she delivered speeches that initially appealed to women's patriotism and later expanded to advocate women's education, employment, independence, opposition to feudal marriage, and the abolition of foot-binding. However, during the Long March she developed pulmonary tuberculosis.

After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Deng Yingchao met with women leaders from areas under Kuomintang (KMT) rule and called for the creation of a women's movement to support the national resistance against Japan. She urged women across the country, regardless of party or organizational affiliation, to put aside political disagreements and work together to defend the nation from the Japanese.

In 1938, she promoted the establishment of the Chinese Wartime Child Care Association.

Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

During the Cultural Revolution, Deng Yingchao had a less visible public profile, limiting her public appearances to receiving foreign leaders during diplomatic trips. She did this to avoid being swept up by the political turmoil caused by her husband's central role in the Revolution.

With the introduction of the Reform Era, spouses of prominent leaders were removed from the top decision-making bodies. Soon thereafter, Deng Yingchao used her early contacts with the Kuomintang, as well as her network and reputation in the Second United Front, to lead the newly established Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs. From June 1983 to March 1988, she served as Chairwoman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

In September 1985, Deng Yingchao voluntarily applied for resignation as a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. In April 1988, after the expiration of the chairmanship term of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, she resigned.

Tiananmen Square Protests (1989)

After a month of protest against corruption and democratic reforms that started in April 1989, the Chinese government declared martial law on 20 May. On the third day under martial law, Deng Yingchao addressed a letter to student protestors in Beijing. In the letter published in the People's Daily, she implored the protestors to stop the protest and resume classes. Even though it cannot be confirmed if Deng agreed to the deploying of the PLA, she nevertheless publicly endorsed Deng Xiaoping's decision on 19 June.

International and diplomatic activities

In September 1939, due to Zhou Enlai's illness, Deng Yingchao accompanied him to the Soviet Union for medical treatment. During this period, she gained insights into the status and living conditions of Soviet women. After returning to China in 1940, she wrote several articles for the magazine Women’s Lives (妇女生活), introducing and publicizing the achievements of the Soviet Union and the lives of Soviet women and children, with the aim of inspiring morale and confidence among Chinese women during the War of Resistance against Japan. She was then elected to serve on the Executive Council of the WIDF in 1948 and 1953. In 1949, when the Asian Women's Representative Conference was held in Beijing, Deng served as the head of the Chinese delegation and delivered a report titled "Asian Women's Struggle for National Independence, People's Democracy, and World Peace".

Land reform

During the Land Reform Movement, Deng emphasized the need to mobilize peasant women to further the agrarian revolution. In a 1947 policy meeting on land reform, she stated that "women function as great mobilizers when they speak bitterness.". In 1948, Deng advocated for rural women to take up leadership roles in the land reform movement and persuaded the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party to include the liberation of women as a core tenet of the movement.

At 6:55 am on 11 July 1992, Deng Yingchao died in Beijing Hospital at the age of 88. After cremation, her ashes were scattered in the same place where Zhou Enlai's ashes had been scattered. The official Party evaluation of her is "a great proletarian revolutionary, politician, famous social activist, staunch Marxist, outstanding leader of the party and the country, pioneer of the Chinese women's movement, and highly respected chairman of the Sixth CPPCC".

There is a memorial hall dedicated to her and her husband in Tianjin ().

Chinese actress Huang Wei has frequently portrayed Deng on screen, including in films The Founding of a Republic (2009) and Mao Zedong 1949 (2019), and the television series Diplomatic Situation (2019), among others. Actresses Guan Xiaotong and Liu Mengke portrayed younger versions of Deng in the historical dramas The Founding of an Army (2017) and Striking the Water (2021) respectively.

References

Further reading

  • Deng Yingchao: a painting and a b/w photo
  • Exterior of the Memorial Hall