Deng Pufang - Handicapping Incident

Handicapping Incident

During the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping and his family were targeted by Mao Zedong. Xiaoping was branded as a capitalist roader. In one session, he was forced to kneel to the ground with his arm stretched out behind him and over his head. His family watched as the guards forced him to confess to capitalist ways of thinking.

Mao's Red Guards then imprisoned Deng Pufang. He was tortured and thrown out of the window of a three-story building at Beijing University in 1968, but some sources claimed he may have fallen or jumped out of the window himself. He was rushed to the hospital but was denied admission because he was the son of a capitalist. By the time he reached another clinic, he was paralyzed.

His back was broken and he has since used a wheelchair, becoming a paraplegic.

With regard to his views on the Cultural Revolution, Deng Pufang once said, "The generation of the Cultural Revolution is in no sense a lost generation, as is often said. Quite to the contrary. All those who passed through that testing have been toughened. These people think a great deal, and have their own ideas. They are firm in their convictions, and show initiative. To my way of thinking this generation represents a trump card for China and for the reforms which they have set in motion."