China celebrates supreme leader birthday

BEIJING, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- China was celebrating Sunday the 100th anniversary of the birth of its late supreme leader, Deng Xiaoping, the BBC reported.

Deng is widely regarded as the man who set the country on a pragmatic reformist course after decades of political upheaval. Deng is seen as the architect of China's economic reforms.

He opened up foreign trade and set the stage for the rapid development of China's coastal regions in the hope of kick-starting the economy.

Many Chinese feel his successor, Jiang Zemin, took that doctrine to an extreme, forcing the current leadership of President Hu Jintao to try to address a growing wealth gap.

Deng died in 1997 just months before the U.K. returned Hong Kong to China.