Deng Xiaoping and the Making of Modern China

Deng Xiaoping and the Making of Modern China is a book by Sir Richard Evans chronicling the rise of Deng Xiaoping as the leader of the People's Republic of China. The first British edition was published in 1993 by the Hamilton company. The first American edition was published by Viking Books in 1993. This was Evans's first book. Evans had served as the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to China, from 1984 to 1988. To conduct his research, with approval of PRC officials, Evans had interviewed several PRC governmental officials.

Glen Jennings, author of a book review for the Australian Journal of Politics and History, wrote that the book is "a lucid account of Deng's life and an accessible general introduction to the CCP and the People's Republic of China." A.P. of Current History wrote that the book "follows" closely the career of Deng "almost entirely from the angle of party politics." The book uses Deng's official biography, interviews of CPC historians, secondary sources, and translations of works by Deng as sources. Ann Kent wrote in the Australian Outlook that the book is "[m]ore a narrative of the complicated ups and downs of Deng's career than a searching portrayal or character study". She argues that the main image of Deng in the book is the "'black cat, white cat' pragmatist, of no fixed ideological address, who ultimately succeeded in reasserting his power and changing China's entire political direction through sheer force of circumstance combined with political acumen." A.P. wrote that "Deng's private life remains remote" and therefore Evans produced "very little about" the childhood of Deng and that Evans "is constantly running into walls and left to cite with hushed attention some fairly banal details" when not discussing Deng's political career.

The book includes history of the development of the Communist Party of China along with information about Deng himself. Peter R. Moody wrote in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science that "There are long stretches with much more Party history than information about Deng." Margaret Flanagan wrote in Booklist that "Since Deng Xiaoping's life literally parallels the course of modern Chinese history, this chronicle also provides a blueprint for comprehending the often arcane complexities of twentieth-century China." In Moody's words, the book concludes that Deng was "pragmatic in economics and repressive in politics". Kent wrote that the book's epilogue "provides a balance sheet of Deng's achievements and failures."

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