CHINA'S paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, who transformed the world's most populous nation into an economic power, died last night at his home in Beijing of complications from Parkinson's Disease and a lung infection.
Police and soldiers moved into the centre of the Chinese capital this morning to prepare for a State funeral, as tributes poured in from world leaders to the last great revolutionary figure of this century.
China's President Jiang Zemin will head a 459 member funeral committee, the official Xinhua newsagency said. In accordance with tradition, foreign dignitaries will not be invited to the funeral, the date of which has yet to be set.
Deng died at 21.08 local time (13.08 GMT) according to a letter issued to the Communist Party, the People's Liberation Army, and the people of various ethnic groups throughout China, Xinhua said. The letter was read out on Chinese radio and television.
Deng was 92, although the official announcement gave his age as 93. It is common practice in China for a year to be added to a person's life at the time of the Chinese Lunar New Year which was on February 7th.
The party and government "proclaim with profound grief to the whole party, the whole army, and the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country that our beloved Comrade Deng Xiaoping died after failing to respond to emergency treatment", the letter said.
Beijing has been awash with rumours since Friday that Deng, who had not been seen in public for three years, had suffered a massive stroke. President Jiang and Premier Le Peng cut short provincial visits on Sunday to be at his bedside. There were reports in Beijing last night that doctors had performed an emergency tracheotomy just before he died.
Armed police with assault rifles turned away reporters from the end of the tree lined lane where Deng lived near Tiananmen Square. While retaining supreme authority Deng retired here from his last official position in 1990.
He is survived by his third wife, Zhuo Lin, and two sons and three daughters. His first and second wives divorced him.
The appointment of President Jiang as head of the funeral committee is a strong signal that he will be China's new paramount leader. All 18 members of the politburo are on the committee as well as two other contenders for supreme leadership, Mr Yang Shankun (89) and the former Parliamentary Chairman, Mr Peng Zhen (95).
Flags have been lowered to half mast in Tiananmen Square and over the Great Hall of the People and at Chinese embassies throughout the world "to express the incomparable esteem and personal grief of the whole party, the whole army and the people", the Chinese newsagency announced.
The Chinese leadership has prepared for this moment by sending out strong signals that Deng's economic policies of opening China to outside investment would continue.
Newspapers yesterday highlighted a report that the Economics Minister, Mr Zhu Rongji attended a seminar on the economic theories of Deng. This sent a clear indication to the nervous Chinese stockmarkets that his financial reforms were not about to be reversed.
President Jiang was re elected as Communist Party chief at the 13th Party Congress in 1992 which endorsed Deng's market reforms. The 15th Party Congress will take place in the autumn and set the course for China into the next century
Reuters add: US officials played down concerns over the death, saying Deng had been off the political stage for years and a transition of power had already taken place. But the Chinese American human rights activist, Mr Harry Wu, said Deng's death would spark a power struggle. Although he died as a common member of the Communist Party, having retired from his last official position in 1990, he remained the number one leader because "this is an empire system", Mr Wu said.
President Clinton said he was saddened to learn of the death and he called Deng an "extraordinary" figure on the world stage over the past two decades".