The World - News from March 24, 1989
China’s senior leader, Deng Xiaoping, reappeared in public after missing the first three days of the current session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing. Deng, 84, told visiting Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that he skipped the opening of the legislature to “conserve my health and live longer,” the New China News Agency reported. “Though I am old, I am all right,” he said. Deng chain-smokes, wears a hearing aid in one ear and moves more slowly, but is not known to have any major ailment. He has cut down sharply on public appearances in the last year but is still believed to play a deciding role in policy-making.
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