Deathwatch sets off rush for power

UNREAL city. Beijing, outwardly calm, safe and prosperous, is adrift as the helmsman is away and too many would-be helmsmen get into the fray.

As the deathwatch over Deng Xiaoping's waxen figure intensifies, the knives are out in a free-for-all that seems to defy the 'unity of thought' credo so carefully nurtured by President Jiang Zemin, the putative heir-apparent.

Deng Rong's interview to the New York Times last Friday, which has been banned by the domestic media, has sent shock waves through the Zhongnanhai party headquarters.

To save the fortune of the Deng household and its legions of hangers-on, the child closest to the patriarch has subtly lent her authority to overturning the verdict on two of the worst disasters in party history: the Tiananmen massacre and the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957.

In the interview, which was not cleared by the Politburo, Ms Deng hinted at mending fences with not just the 1,000-odd students and workers killed at the Square but the remnant followers of ousted party chief Zhao Ziyang.

'That's something which will be up to those [leaders] who come afterwards,' she said in reference to a 'reconciliation'. 'It's impossible for me to know how they think.' On the anti-rightist pogrom, Ms Deng indicated: 'A large number of people who were made targets were actually good people.' The gauntlet has been thrown down before Mr Jiang, who, toeing the line laid by Mr Deng, was never 'weak and lax' on the party's absolute correctness in the two fiascoes.