Deng Tells Visitors It’s All Over, Bids Goodby to Political Career

Senior leader Deng Xiaoping told a visiting Japanese delegation Monday that it was the last group of foreign visitors he will meet in his decade-old role as China’s top leader.

“I want to take this opportunity to formally say goodby to my political career,” Deng told the Japanese business group, according to the official New China News Agency. “You are the last group of respected guests I will meet. Retirement must be genuine so that new leaders will not feel embarrassment in their work.”

Deng, 85, formally retired Thursday from chairmanship of the Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, his last party post. Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin, 63, was named to succeed Deng in the important military position, and Deng’s comments Monday appeared to be a further attempt to boost Jiang’s political power.

“To practice genuine retirement, I will no longer meet visitors in the name of the collective, the party or the state,” Deng told his guests.

By virtue of his prestige and personal connections, Deng is widely expected to remain China’s most powerful leader for as long as he is in reasonably good health. He also did not claim that he will no longer see foreigners under any circumstances.

But Deng’s statement Monday means that in meeting foreign dignitaries, he will no longer be the official top representative of the Chinese leadership. He also indicated that he will no longer greet foreigners at the Great Hall of the People.

“It may be impolite if I refrain from meeting some old friends when they visit China in the future,” Deng said. “In that case, I can visit them at the place where they stay. We will chat about friendship and non-political affairs. . . . The party, government and army leaders should be given a free hand in their work, and I will not meddle in their affairs. This is essential for their growth and work.”

Deng was speaking to a 35-member Japanese mission led by Ryoichi Kawai of the Japan-China Economy and Trade Assn. The group, with representation from various business circles, is the most high-powered Japanese business delegation to visit China since martial-law troops were used to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing in early June.

Deng praised Jiang, an engineer and former Communist Party head in Shanghai who was named national party chief in late June, as a “very capable man.”

“As an intellectual, he is more knowledgeable than I,” Deng said. “Of course, he is less experienced than I because he is only 63.”

Deng also offered a strong endorsement of China’s year-old economic retrenchment program. This program, now officially scheduled to last for at least two more years, has been described by some foreign and Chinese analysts as an attack on Deng’s policies of market-oriented reforms.

Meanwhile, wire services quoted sources in Beijing as saying that the Communist Party Central Committee has formally ousted former party chief Zhao Ziyang from its ranks nearly six months after he was accused of supporting the student-led democracy movement.