Deng Advises Nixon on Health: ‘Be Optimistic’

China’s 81-year-old leader, Deng Xiaoping, gave former President Richard M. Nixon some advice today on how an elderly statesman can stay healthy.

“There is no secret,” Deng said. “For one thing, be optimistic, and secondly try not to do too much.

“Then you can stay free from worries,” added Deng, the chairman of the Communist Party central advisory commission.

Deng told Nixon he has delegated most of his daily duties to younger people and he now has more time to himself than any other top Chinese leader.

“Now I think I am--here in China--the one who has the most time at my own disposal because it’s the others who actually are doing the job,” Deng told Nixon as they sat down for private talks.

He was referring to younger party and state leaders, including his proteges, Premier Zhao Ziyang and the party general secretary, Hu Yaobang.

Nixon, 72, is on his fifth visit to China. His landmark 1972 journey led to a reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Deng, looking tan after several weeks at a seaside resort, said he sat to Nixon’s right because he has difficulty hearing in one ear.

“You and President Reagan have something in common,” Nixon said. “President Reagan has one ear that’s not as good as the other ear. But that’s very convenient, that you hear only what you want to hear.”

The author of memoirs and several works on foreign policy, Nixon said Deng should write a book about how to keep in such good health. “It would sell hundreds of thousands of volumes in the United States,” he said.