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rearrangement and by placing his younger proteges in the most
important positions. One of the reasons for his withdrawal from
the day-to-day running of affairs has been to enable his proteges,
notably Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, to acquire greater national
and international standing and authority in their own right.
Deng is remarkably vigorous for his age, and his mind remains
very sharp. Because of deafness in his right ear he reverses the normal seating patterns of his audiences and puts his guests
on his left. He has great authority of manner, and is by far
the most forthcoming of China's current leaders. His natural
impatience to get things done, sometimes too quickly, has been
tempered by the more cautious counsels of the other elder statesmen
he has reintroduced into the leadership.
His wife, Zhuo Lin, has a post in the Secretariat of the
Military Commission. She was born in Yunnan in 1916. He has
a son,
Deng Zhifang who has studied as a scientist in the United
States, and is now working at the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
Another son, Deng Pufang, was badly injured in the Cultural
Revolution and has recently been given considerable public
prominence as a founder of the China Welfare Fund for the Handicapped
(as such, he visited Hong Kong in the autumn of 1984).
Approximate pronunciation:
Dung rhymes with hung
Jiao rhymes with cow
Ping rhymes with sing
Form of address: Your Excellency
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