Deng Plans to Be ‘Ordinary Citizen’
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PEKING — China’s 81-year-old leader, Deng Xiaoping, said he will travel abroad “as an ordinary old Chinese citizen” after his retirement, as long as he is physically fit.
The diminutive, chain-smoking Deng made the remark during a meeting with former Canadian Prime Minster Pierre Trudeau at Peking’s cavernous Great Hall of the People last week.
Trudeau invited Deng to visit Canada “when he feels free,” reported the state-run China Central Television, which broadcast portions of the meeting in a nationwide newscast.
“If I am physically fit, I would like to visit Canada as an ordinary old Chinese citizen after my retirement,” Deng replied.
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