Deng Seen Dropping All High Posts

A delegate to China’s 13th Communist Party Congress now under way here revealed Friday that senior leader Deng Xiaoping’s name is not on a preliminary list of Central Committee candidates that was voted on Thursday.

The information provided further evidence that Deng will carry out his often expressed desire to retire from leading party positions. Deng, 83, has repeatedly said he wishes to step down from the 20-member Politburo to help ensure a smooth transition to younger leaders who will carry on his policies of openness and market-oriented reform. But it would be something of a surprise for him also to step down from the party’s much larger Central Committee.

“I never thought I wouldn’t find Deng’s name on the list,” Lu Guanqiu, 44, a former peasant who now directs a factory that he helped to establish, said at a morning press conference in the Great Hall of the People.

2 Other Retirees

Another delegate, Chen Zhili, a Shanghai party official, said at an afternoon press conference that Deng and two other elderly members of the Politburo Standing Committee, President Li Xiannian, 78, and veteran economist Chen Yun, 82, had persuaded delegates to allow them to retire.

Former General Secretary Hu Yaobang, 72, is also expected to step down from the Standing Committee, leaving acting General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, 68, as the only continuing member of the top policy-making body.

While the Politburo and its Standing Committee are the leading organs of party power, they are ultimately responsible to the full Central Committee, which currently has about 200 members.

It is not clear whether the congress might add or replace names when it makes its final vote on the Central Committee list. And regardless of what positions Deng gives up, he is expected to remain China’s de facto leader.

Successful Managers

At the Friday morning press conference, Lu and three other enterprise managers from ordinary backgrounds who have achieved success under China’s market-oriented reforms spoke to about 200 Chinese and foreign reporters. They spoke first as a panel, then separated into different parts of the room to let reporters speak with them more informally.

During the first part of the press conference, Lu said that on Thursday delegates received a list of 182 candidates for the Central Committee. In a “preliminary election,” delegates were to select candidates for 172 positions by striking off 10 names, he said.

Lu said that “after extensive consideration” he excluded 10 names.

“This morning, the internal name lists came out,” he said. “I got seven names right. This shows our party’s democracy embodies the feelings of common party members.”

It was during the informal part of the press conference that Lu said Deng’s name was not on the list.

The official New China News Agency reported Friday evening that the congress presidium had approved the list of Central Committee candidates “produced after preliminary elections from among more candidates than actually elected.”

Unprecedented Coverage

The presidium meeting “decided to submit the name lists to the congress for deliberation,” the agency said.

In keeping with the congress’ themes of openness and reform, China has allowed an unprecedented degree of coverage by foreign reporters, although they have not been allowed to attend this week’s working sessions.

But Lu, by publicly indicating that Deng’s name was not on the Central Committee candidates list, may have inadvertently gone beyond intended limits. Other delegates who spoke with reporters at the second press conference in the afternoon flatly refused to discuss the list.

The congress will elect the new Central Committee before it concludes Sunday. The new Central Committee is expected to meet immediately to elect a new Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee.