DENG RONG, Deng Xiaoping's most influential offspring, is planning to send her 15-year-old daughter to school in the United States.
A source close to the Deng household said yesterday Ms Deng, 45, and her husband, Major-General He Ping, had finalised arrangements for the American education of their only child, nicknamed Yangyang.
She is due to spend a few months improving her English in the Washington area and then enter a high school there in the autumn.
Yangyang, who uses a different name on her travel document, is considered Mr Deng's favourite grandchild. She is best remembered accompanying him during annual tree-planting ceremonies in the 1980s.
Political analysts in Beijing said it was understandable for Ms Deng to favour an American school. She and her husband worked in the Chinese Embassy in Washington from 1979 to 1983 and her younger brother, Deng Zhifang, has a doctorate in physics from Rochester University.
However, analysts said Yangyang's early departure could be due to the declining health of the patriarch. 'It's very rare for the offspring of even senior cadres to leave for a foreign education this early,' a source said.
'She will be thoroughly Americanised in a few years. Deng would not approve.' Yangyang accompanied her mother during her tour of the US early last year to promote her book My Father Deng Xiaoping.