Word: deng
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...WERE TO WALK IN A CIRCLE around the courtyard of the Beijing bungalow that 90-year-old Deng Xiaoping shares with more than a dozen members of his extended family, the distance covered would add up to exactly 165 yds. Until last year China's most powerful patriarch would complete this circuit 20 times in the course of his two daily walks. He was extremely serious about his count, carefully ticking off the rounds to himself each time he finished...
...filtering through the mist of secrecy in which he is cloaked, reliable reports indicate that the enfeebled Deng is nearing the end of his life. He can no longer write, is almost blind and has become so hard of hearing and slurred of speech, it is said, that two of his three daughters are the only people who can interpret his words to the public. Last week his youngest daughter, Xiao Rong, conceded to the New York Times that her father's health is declining "day by day." Given that she serves as Deng's personal secretary and is traveling...
...Because Deng's stature in life has been so monumental, his absence in death cannot help reverberating long after he is gone. His has been the authority that held together the two contradictory strands of Chinese life. Even as he spurred the great leap toward a free-market economy, Deng was able to keep China's political system firmly in the hands of an ever more sclerotic Communist Party. When he finally dies, the relative strength of these competing systems will hang in the balance. "No one can replace him," explains a European diplomat. "There aren't many people...
...overstatement to suggest that without Deng, China will tumble into disorder. But his departure will usher in the greatest period of uncertainty since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. So pervasive is his influence that rumors of his illnesses regularly launch East Asian stock markets into stomach-churning plunges. For years the reclusive leader has proved those reports premature, quelling the buzz by appearing in public, hale and hearty as ever...
...week's end Deng's daughter's acknowledgment of his deteriorating health had yet to circulate through China. But it obviously comes as no surprise to a ruling circle determined to hang on to power. For the past few months, the government has been dealing harshly with political critics, imprisoning leading domestic dissidents, preventing opposition groups from organizing, blacklisting overseas dissidents to bar their return. Last year long-term activist Wei Jingsheng was rearrested, and just last month nine democratic opponents were given substantial prison sentences for attempting to organize human-rights and labor groups two years...