Chinese Debating Deng’s Plan to Quit Politburo

BEIJING — Senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s express wish to step down from the Communist Party Politburo is a topic of intense discussion at the current party congress, several delegates said Wednesday.

“To be frank, I hope he won’t quit the Politburo,” Zhao Baojiang, mayor of the east-central China city of Wuhan, said at a press conference in the Great Hall of the People. “But comrade Deng Xiao-ping has recently presented an important reason for doing this. I’m weighing the pros and cons. At any rate, I hope he will continue to play an important role, quit or not.”

Zhao declined to say what “important reason” Deng has offered.

Western analysts believe there is little doubt that Deng, 83, along with two other elderly leaders and former party General Secretary Hu Yaobang, 72, will step down from the five-member Standing Committee of the Politburo, making room for younger leaders to join acting General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, 68, on the powerful body.

With his plan to step down, Deng is believed to have brought pressure on other elderly leaders less enthusiastic about his market-oriented economic reforms to also give up their posts.

But whether Deng will also leave the 20-member Politburo is unclear, and if there is any genuine debate at the congress over Deng’s posts, it may be over this question.

Deng will continue to be China’s top leader regardless of what positions he gives up, and he is widely expected to remain de facto commander in chief of the armed forces by retaining his chairmanship of the Central Military Commission.

This week’s working sessions of the eight-day congress are not open to foreign reporters. Wednesday’s press conference, given by leaders of four important Chinese cities that are among those taking the lead in economic reforms, was arranged partly to make up for this.

At the press conference, the four men were each asked to say whether they think Deng should retire from the Politburo.

In addition to comments Deng has made, Hu Qili, 58, one of the younger reformers expected to get a position on the Politburo Standing Committee, reportedly told an East European delegation last month that “at least seven” members of the Politburo would retire.

The Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that Hu listed the seven as veteran economist Chen Yun, 82; President Li Xiannian, 78; orthodox ideologist Hu Qiaomu, 75; National People’s Congress chairman Peng Zhen, 85; Xi Zhongxun, 74; state councilor Fang Yi, 71, and Ni Zhifu, 55. Deng’s name was noticeably absent from the list.

Liao Bokang, party secretary of the city of Chongqing in the province of Sichuan, noted that Deng is a native of Sichuan and said that “we in Sichuan have special affection for him.”