Deng formally announces he'll leave government

June 6, 1980

Deng Xiaoping, who renewed ties with the United States and engineered China's modernization drive, announced Thursday he would resign as deputy prime minister is August to make way for a younger group of leaders. By 1985 Mr. Deng plans to relinquish his post as vice-chairman of the Communist Party and his posts on the party's military commission and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.