Report Says Deng Is Hospitalized

China’s paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, has been taken to one of Beijing’s best hospitals after suffering a brain hemorrhage, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Saturday.

Deng, 92, has been in the intensive care unit of the army’s No. 3 Hospital since Thursday, the independent Apple daily said, quoting unidentified sources in Beijing.

It said Deng had been hospitalized for a similar ailment before the Chinese New Year holidays.

Rumors that Deng was seriously ill shook the Hong Kong stock market. On Friday, the key Hang Seng index fell 126.69 points, or 0.9%, closing at 13,113.26 points.

Deng was last seen in public at Chinese New Year celebrations in 1994.

He gave up the last of his top state and Communist Party posts in 1990 but continued to hold power behind the scenes. Although Deng is now thought to be too weak to be involved in politics, he is held in such reverence that no political attacks on his legacy are believed possible during his lifetime.

The Chinese government routinely denies reports that Deng is seriously ill.