LEFTIST commissar Mr Deng Liqun is planning a counter-attack against the reform programme of patriarch Mr Deng Xiaoping and Vice-Premier Mr Zhu Rongji.
Chinese sources said Mr Deng Liqun, known to Western diplomats as ''Little Deng'', had collected the recent sayings of Mr Zhu in a bid to incriminate him as a ''bourgeois liberal''.
In a series of internal talks, Little Deng also expressed doubts about the use of market economics.
The former chief of the party's Propaganda Department, is also mapping out plans for the promotion of his proteges.
According to sources close to the leftist establishment, Little Deng and his advisers recently collected the speeches and internal sayings of Mr Zhu and other noted reformists.
''We must raise our guard against bourgeois-liberal officials and former rightists,'' Little Deng reportedly said.
''The market economy enabled the capitalistic system to be set up. Yet there is no scientific proof that the market economy can help socialist countries develop and prosper.'' The Mirror also reported that aside from ideological and cultural circles, Little Deng had tried to build bridges to the People's Liberation Army.