The World - News from Sept. 1, 1989

China’s senior leader, Deng Xiaoping, rumored to be seriously ill, is in “very good health,” the Foreign Ministry said in Beijing. Spokesman Li Zhaoxiang declined to comment, however, on the whereabouts of the 85-year-old Deng, who has not been seen in public since June 9. “Some correspondents have concocted and spread rumors,” Li said. “This is incompatible with their occupation.” In recent months, foreign journalists have reported that Deng is seriously ill, possibly with prostate cancer, and received treatment in the seaside resort of Beidaihe, a summer retreat for Chinese leaders east of Beijing.