Weiping Aung Tan, a human rights activist, said, “These are the conditions of people at the front lines. There is no medical treatment of people going to the front line. There are no supplies of food supplies. If you ask civilians, they can’t tell you who is going where and when the humanitarian situation would be better.

“The government is aware about this issue. People have very basic needs. We are in a situation where they are struggling. They are all on the front line, all suffering terribly.”

Deng Xiaoping has been credited with unleashing the economy to the world after many major economies were in crisis. He led China from 1963 to 1992.

After his death, the government said the Communist Party had won its “endlessly difficult” but “long battle”.

“I’ve come to see that [the party] is going through a very difficult period at every level of organization,” he said in a speech in 1989. “It is a time when they have only one hope left and that is to continue the struggle to develop the Chinese economy and its international cooperation.”

The BBC’s Frank Gardner in Beijing says Deng was a pragmatist who was always willing to compromise.

Some critics of his policies, however, remain bitterly opposed. They worry that Chinese leaders are more interested in consolidating their power than trying to modernise a country they blame for much of the world’s problems.