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SCMP Reporter

The death of Communist Party elder Peng Zhen was mourned calmly yesterday, with state media relatively low key in reporting his passing.

 Peng, 95, died of illness on Saturday in Beijing, Xinhua (the New China News Agency) reported early yesterday.

 Unlike patriarch Deng Xiaoping, who died in February, Peng's death was announced without the accompaniment of a dirge and the Government did not order the flying of national flags at half-mast.

 National television did not show any top leaders paying respect to Peng or expressing their condolences to his family, although most of the top leaders, including Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin and premier Li Peng were known to be in Beijing.

 Last night, official agencies had still not announced the arrangements for Peng's funeral.

 The semi-official China News Service had released a report on Peng the day before his death, praising him for his loyalty and concern for young leaders. The report did not reveal the state of his health. It said he was still 'writing' China's history.

 The Communist Party maintains a tight control over giving out information on its leaders and all reports are subject to tight scrutiny before they are released.

 The only official report on Peng's death was an obituary released by Xinhua.

 It called him 'a great proletarian revolutionary and statesman, an outstanding activist in state affairs, a staunch Marxist, a major founder of the socialist legal system in China and an outstanding leader'.

 The description was in line with those offered for other party elders like Chen Yun, who died in 1995, but less flowing with adulation than those accorded to Deng.

 When the patriarch died two months ago, Mr Jiang compared Deng with the late Chairman Mao Zedong and praised his mentor for engineering China's reforms.

 All Politburo Standing Committee members were at Deng's bedside when he died.

 On Saturday, most of them were shown on television at the Great Hall of the People greeting Mr Jiang home from Russia.

 Peng last appeared in public in September when he inspected a chemical factory in Beijing.

 After he missed Deng's funeral, officials said he was in hospital due to the effects of cold weather in the capital.

 Peng is survived by widow Zhang Jieqing, four sons and a daughter.



Low-key response to death of 'immortal'