BEIJING has voiced doubts on whether Deng Xiaoping will make a television appearance at Lunar New Year, signalling the possibility of the first no-show by the country's paramount leader since his retirement.
'We cannot really predict whether he will come out there on the screen at the time of the Spring Festival,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang said yesterday.
Mr Shen stressed, however, that the 90-year-old leader was in good health, despite a recent spate of rumours that he was dead or dying.
'Comrade Deng Xiaoping's health is in a good condition,' he said.
Mr Deng's non-appearance at Lunar New Year, which this year falls on January 31, would have far-reaching implications, confirming that he is too weak to be seen in public and, by implication, too weak to maintain his influence on affairs of state.
The patriarch has appeared at every Lunar New Year festival since 1990.
