Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao visited an on-going photo, dossier and relics exhibition Friday afternoon to mark late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's 100th birthday, which falls on August 22.

Deng, who died in 1997 at age 92, introduced the reform and opening-up policies in China that paved the way for a market economy.

Deng Xiaoping made indelible historic contributions to the Communist Party of China (CPC), the nation and the people during more than 70 years of his revolutionary career, and won the love and esteem of all CPC members, soldiers and people of various ethnic groups across the country, Hu said.

"Deng's great achievement will be enshrined in the glorious history of the Chinese nation, and his scientific theory will guide Chinese people forever," Hu said. "We will always revere, love and miss him."

Sponsored by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, Central Cultural and Historical Research Institute, Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee, Ministry of Culture, Central Archives, and National Museum of China, the exhibition has collected more than 320 historic photos, 50 dossiers and 140 pieces of precious relics. Many of them are available for public viewing for the first time.

The exhibition is being held at the National Museum. It has attracted more than 70,000 visitors since its opening on Aug. 10.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2004)