Deng Ailing, Diplomats in Peking Told

Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping has not been seen in public for more than a month, and diplomats here have been told that he is ill.

It is not known whether the reported illness is serious, but Chinese officials have privately told diplomats that Deng has some health problems and does not want to meet with foreign visitors for a couple of months.

One source said Chinese officials have turned down diplomats’ requests for a report from Chinese medical authorities.

Deng, 81, who has spearheaded China’s economic reforms and its opening to the outside world over the last six years, has not been seen in public since Dec. 14, when he met in Peking with Walter F. Mondale, the former U.S. vice president.

Deng has prompted speculation about his health by being absent from public view before. But the current absence--more than six weeks so far--is apparently the longest the Chinese leader has gone without seeing foreign visitors or appearing on television.

Ministry Denies Rumors

In the last few weeks, rumors have spread, in Peking and on the Hong Kong stock market, that Deng is ill and perhaps dying. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has repeatedly denied the rumor.

“Chairman Deng Xiaoping is in very good health,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said last week at the regular weekly news briefing. Deng is chairman of the Communist Party’s central advisory commission.

On Tuesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman dismissed as “sheer fabrication” the current report of Deng’s illness. He said there would be no further comment.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) had been expected to talk with Deng during a visit here early this month, but no meeting took place. A high-ranking delegation from Zimbabwe, led by Senate President Nolan Makombe, arrived in China last week expecting to see Deng, but the visitors were told that no meeting would be possible.

Absent From Conference

Early this month, Deng failed to appear at one of the largest gatherings of Communist Party officials in recent years, a conference of about 8,000 officials to discuss economic problems and a party drive against corruption.

Deng, a chain-smoker, is deaf in one ear but is not known to have had any other health problems in recent years. In public appearances last fall, he appeared slightly unsteady on his feet but his voice was clear and firm.

He told former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger in November that the secret of his longevity is that he does not “overdo” his activities.

For at least three of the last four winters, Deng has left the cold of Peking in January or February for a vacation in Guangdong province in southern China.

In 1982, one of his southern journeys touched off speculation that Deng was ailing. A magazine suggested that he had been deposed in what it called a “bloodless coup.” After a month, however, Deng made a well-publicized reappearance.