TNAG-2102-FCO40-2991-Leading-personalities-in-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 98

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geologist, he was transferred to a senior Party job in June 1986. Has been variously described as a close associate both of Li Peng and of his arch rival Zhao Ziyang. He has continued to appear since the events of June 1989.

D.

THE PARTY ELDERS

Deng Xiaoping (85)

Deng resigned from his last official position in March 1990. Although he now claims to be in retirement he still sees all important foreign visitors to China. His position has probably been considerably weakened by the events since June, but he is still the pre-eminent leader in China and his influence will not be to be entirely removed following his resignation from official position. He was the original driving force behind the programme of economic reform which turned China decisively away from the old Maoist path. Nonetheless he is a stern disciplinarian and upholder of the supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party, and is prepared to sacrifice economic development, if need be, to maintain it.

Bo Yibo (83)

The Vice-Chairman of the Central Advisory Committee. one of the more hardline Party elders. He was involved in the overthrow of the late Hu Yaobang in 1986/87, and has had comparatively little sympathy for the aims of reform. He was one of China's leading economists in the early years of the People's Republic and did much to build up the heavy industrial system. It took until the late 1970s for him to be rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution, and he held a number of economic posts before moving into semi-retirement in 1982.

at times of crisis.

Chen Yun (85)

Still feels entitled to intervene

Chairman of the Central Advisory Commission, a Party body set up to accommodate the Party veterans who have been reluctant to let go of the levers of power. Once China's leading economic organiser and the architect of China's reconstruction after 1949, he is now virtually bed ridden, although he still possesses the ability to make his views known at times of crisis. Suspicious of the pace of reform, constantly harking back to what he sees as the fundamentals of success - a more centralised planning system, and concentration on agricultural development.

Li Xiannian (81)

Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative

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