It was his 120th birthday celebration a few months ago, with officials praising him. Whether they actually believe what they say is another question, but you can hardly blame them for not going against the party.
Whenever someone emphasizes Deng at the same time people are discussing Mao, you can tell that their are elements in the party that are trying to emphasize that China's way forward is more inspired by Deng than Mao. But this is because there are two factions in the party: the moderates (Deng-like) and the leftists (Mao-like); the moderates have dominated for a long time.
