From the AP
Read the latest news on the situation in China after Deng Xiaoping's death.

From The Post

Deng's Successor to Lead Memorial Rites Tuesday

BEIJING, Feb. 20 -- China began six days of mourning for Deng Xiaoping today as officials announced plans for a grand but tightly controlled farewell to the man who reshaped China's economy. Deng will be cremated, and 10,000 invited guests will honor his memory Tuesday at a "memorial meeting" to be held in Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People.

DENG TIMELINE 1904: Born, Guangan County, Sichuan Province 1920: Travels to France for work-study program 1924: Joins Chinese Communist Party in France 1926: Studies in the Soviet Union, then returns to China and leads Communist troops in southern China 1933: Joins Mao's forces in Jiangxi Province and is purged in an inner-party conflict, the first of three times Deng is removed from power 1934: Makes the Long March. Later serves with Central Plains Field Army as political commissar 1948: Helps lead the Huai Hai campaign, which exacted heavy Nationalist casualties; leads the campaign to cross the Yangtze River 1952: Becomes vice premier 1955: Denounces Rao Shushi and Gao Gang in early purge of Mao's rivals; is later elevated to membership on Politburo 1956: As Chinese delegate to Soviet 20th Party Congress, witnesses Nikita Khrushchev's speech denouncing Joseph Stalin 1966: Removed from leadership positions, placed under house arrest and harassed by radical leftist members of Mao's inner circle. Labeled "number two capitalist roader." (Number one, President Liu Shaoqi, was jailed, beaten and died in prison.) 1969-72: Sent with wife Zhuo Lin to Jiangxi Province, where he tries in vain to rehabilitate his son, Deng Pufang, who was paralyzed after being forced from a fourth-story window by Red Guards 1973: Allowed to return to Beijing and is restored to his job as vice premier, and to membership in the Communist Party Central Committee and Central Military Commission 1976: Purged again. Dismissed after demonstrations critical of the Cultural Revolution 1977: Restored to government positions; continues to ease Mao's appointed successor, Hua Guofeng, from power 1978: Cements his power at party plenum and presents a plan to focus party attention on economic reform; marks beginning of "open door" policy 1979: Begins suppressing Democracy Wall movement; visits the United States and wears a cowboy hat in Texas; imprisons electrician Wei Jingsheng for advocating democracy and criticizing Deng's leadership 1983: Launches campaign against "spiritual pollution" and warns against liberalization in the political sphere 1989: Orders army crackdown on Tiananmen Square demonstrators, killing hundreds 1990: Retires from last government posts 1994: Last public appearance during the Chinese lunar new year festivities. Is shown on state television as a frail 89-year-old inspecting a bridge in Shanghai.

Unlike Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, whose death in 1976 caused a vast national outpouring of grief and whose embalmed body rests on display in a mausoleum in Tiananmen Square, Deng requested that his corneas be donated to an eye bank, his body dissected for medical research and his ashes cast into the sea, his family said in a letter released today by the official New China News Agency.

"Comrade Xiaoping always believed in simple and frugal funerals," Deng's family said in the Feb. 15 letter sent to President Jiang Zemin, head of the official funeral committee, and to the Communist Party's Central Committee. "We hope that the last thing we do for him will reflect the essence of his mental outlook, and express our grief in an utterly plain and solemn way."

They asked that the casket containing his ashes be covered with the flag of the Chinese Communist Party, with a color photo on top "that displays the superb mental outlook of Comrade Xiaoping . . . and to express the solemn atmosphere."

No foreigners will be among those invited to the memorial service, apparently because of Deng's formal status as a private citizen since he gave up his last official post in 1990.

Flags in China's capital flew at half-staff today, and the streets were calm. State television repeatedly replayed this morning's news broadcast announcing Deng's death Wednesday night of complications from Parkinson's disease and a lung infection, and other programs showed highlights of Deng's life followed by dirges and a smiling photo of Deng with the words "eternal glory." All newspapers carried the same 5,000-word eulogy prepared for the occasion.

The official news agency carried tributes from various dignitaries, ranging from school administrators to military leaders, from President Clinton to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Still, many people, especially in rural areas, were slow to learn of the death of Deng, architect of a new economic order that transformed China without loosening his political grip.

The funeral will not only be the closing political act for Deng, who entered politics in his mid-teens, but it will also be the opening act in a highly political year that will climax in a major Communist Party congress in the fall that is expected to reshuffle several of the top government and party posts.

For President and party chief Jiang, Deng's funeral offers an opportunity to cement his position as the country's top leader. Jiang will be seen on national television inheriting the mantle of leadership from the man who handpicked him in 1989, and leading the Communist Party's call to rally around flag, party and leadership.

"Party organizations at all levels should organize officials and the masses to listen to or watch the live transmission of the memorial meeting," the funeral committee said in a statement.

Although funeral committees for top Communist leaders frequently have one or more deputy chairmen, Deng's has none, which some analysts saw as an attempt by Jiang, as chairman, to set himself apart from potential rivals.

The committee is an unwieldy group with 459 members, twice the size of the Communist Party's Central Committee. That was seen as an effort to include a wide variety of national constituencies, including the Communist Party, nonparty members, military leaders and even newly appointed leaders and civil service figures from Hong Kong and Macao.

The funeral will showcase key people believed to be busy jockeying for position at the party congress.

At that time, because of a constitutional limit of two terms, Premier Li Peng will have to step down, setting off a chain reaction of new appointments. Some leading candidates for the position include deputy premiers Li Lanqing and Wu Bangguo as well as Li Ruihuan, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress.

Qiao Shi, chairman of the National People's Congress, which is scheduled to open its annual session on March 1, is said by acquaintances to want to play a greater political role. He could try to squeeze onto Jiang's turf by striving for a senior position in the party, for which Qiao once ran the organization department. He may have to compete with Li Peng, who will be seeking a place to land after relinquishing the premiership.

If Qiao leaves the legislature, that in turn would set off another round of maneuvering. Acquaintances of Qiao say that he favors his deputy chairman, the relatively liberal Tian Jiyun, but Tian once sharply criticized Jiang, who is expected to oppose such a move. Li Peng or Li Ruihuan reportedly are other candidates for the People's Congress leadership post.

Li Peng, Qiao and Li Ruihuan are ranked numbers two, three and four respectively on the list of the funeral committee. Number five is Peng Zhen, a contemporary of Deng and no longer a member of the party leadership.

In the past, funerals for Chinese leaders -- Zhou Enlai in 1976 and Hu Yaobang in 1989 -- helped launch protest movements that shook the hold of the party or government. This time, the government has asked Beijing students, who are just drifting back from Chinese new year's vacations, to limit their going out at night.

The funeral presents not only an opportunity for Jiang to alter his image, but also a chance for China to change the most memorable symbols of the last eight years. Those are still the images of 1989: student demonstrators for democracy, tanks firing on the protesters, and an individual standing alone to keep a tank column from advancing before he was dragged away by friends.

"Deng's death starts a protracted period when China has the opportunity to refurbish its international image, to put behind it the last image indelibly printed, at least in the American mind, of the lone hero defying the column of tanks," said Stanford University professor Michael Oksenberg, a China scholar. "Now we can discuss the enormous achievements of the Deng era."

Not everyone was eager to discuss Deng's achievements, however, or to applaud the back-room maneuvering that will determine the outcome of the fall party congress.

"Mr. Deng's vision for China was `to get rich is glorious,' but this glory never extended to human dignity," said a statement by Human Rights in China, a New York-based group run by Chinese exiles. "The Chinese people deserve and demand the fundamental right of freedom of expression and the right to participate in the political decisions that affect their lives."

@CAPTION: In Hong Kong, Kwok Kuen Kwong, 13, carries flowers outside offices of the New China News Agency.

@CAPTION: In Lanzhou, in northwestern China, Lu Cong Heng, 83, cries as an interviewer asks how he feels about Deng's death.