CHINA'S paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, spent his 89th birthday yesterday in seclusion, without public celebrations or fanfare, although the official media did mark the occasion by expounding his theories on building socialism.
In an article about the leader's contribution to military modernisation, the Liberation Army Daily called on the country to hold high Mr Deng's banner of ''liberating thought'', and learn from the ''great political courage'' he had shown in launching economic reform.
The Communist Party-run People's Daily lauded Mr Deng's contributions to theory and his greatness in the field of practice. It noted that the army alone had published 56 books on Mr Deng, selling 15 million copies.
It is customary for Mr Deng's birthday to pass without pomp. According to Chinese acquainted with Mr Deng's relatives, he usually celebrates quietly with a family gathering at his stately, tree-shrouded home.
The official media did not even mention the occasion, which, this year, is less a cause for celebration than consternation.
Over the past few months, talk in Beijing has been that Mr Deng, the man who effectively has run China for the past 15 years, is seriously ill. US intelligence sources have gone as far as to say he is close to death.
Other sources say he has merely suffered a renewed inflammation of the prostrate gland, while President Jiang Zemin maintained recently that Mr Deng was in good health.
