World IN BRIEF : CHINA : Communists Back Economic Growth

The Communist Party gave a ringing endorsement to Deng Xiaoping’s call for an unswerving pursuit of swift economic growth. The announcement came at the end of a four-day meeting of the party’s Central Committee, which had been called to plot the direction of China’s economic reform before the death of its main architect. Deng is 89 and ailing. A party communique said China has to “speed up the process of establishing a socialist market economic system and bring about a sustained, swift and sound development of the national economy.”