World IN BRIEF : CHINA : Premier Li Peng Stripped of Key Post

Hard-line Premier Li Peng has been dismissed as head of a key economic think tank, national radio reported in Beijing. The rubber-stamp standing committee of China’s Parliament made the decision to remove Li from the post he had held since April, 1988. He was replaced by Chen Jinhua, 61, president of the China National Petrochemical Corp. Analysts said the shift could reflect continuing disagreements among Chinese leaders over the troubled state of the economy and how to proceed with free-market economic reforms started in the late 1970s. Chinese economists and foreign diplomats do not see the shift as a blow to Li because the State Commission for the Restructuring of the Economy had ceded its place as China’s top economic advisory body.