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China says Deng will is a fake
February 26, 1997
Web posted at: 11:53 a.m. EST (1653 GMT)HONG KONG (CNN) -- China has denied a report in Hong Kong newspapers that senior leader Deng Xiaoping left a will apologizing for the 1989 crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Two Hong Kong newspapers reported there was such a will but gave no sources. The reports said Deng expressed remorse about the shooting of students during the military crackdown and that he apologized to families of the dead and to the people of China.
A copy of the purported will, which was dated September 12 of last year, was also sent to international journalists in China
A Chinese government spokesman in Hong Kong said Wednesday that "the so-called Deng Xiaoping will, reported on by some media in Hong Kong and overseas, is a fabrication by some elements of the 'democracy movement' in the United States who sent it to the media."
"These few 'democracy movement' elements clumsily made up stories with some secret aim. Anybody with a conscience would despise this," said the spokesman for China's mission in Hong Kong, the state-run Xinhua news agency branch.
Deng, who died a week ago, was in power when tanks were sent in to crush a student-led democracy movement in Tiananmen Square on June 3-4, 1989. He later thanked the army, and never publicly expressed any misgivings about the crackdown.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- China officially mourns Deng Xiaoping - February 24, 1997
- China mourns paramount leader - February 19, 1997
Related sites:
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- Inside China Today
- China News Services
- China.com
- People's Daily - official newspaper of the Communist Party of China
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