history
A typesetter-turned-revolutionary, Chen ran PRC economic planning from 1949 and was the most influential voice arguing against Deng Xiaoping's faster marketization in the 1980s. His 鸟笼经济 metaphor - a market bird inside a planned-economy cage - shaped China's reform debates for over a decade.
culture
Chen is often paired with Deng as the yin-yang of Chinese reform: Deng pushed opening up, Chen insisted on state control. Xi Jinping's father Xi Zhongxun was his long-time political ally, and Chen's son Chen Yuan headed the China Development Bank.
