Chinese deputy president dies

Peking (Reuter) - Wang Zhen, China's hardline vice- president, died yesterday, just days before a meeting of parliament that would have retired him from his post. He was 85 and had been ill for months.

Wang, vice-president since 1988, died in Canton, southern China. State radio hailed him as a great 'revolutionary, statesman and soldier, a staunch Marxist'. He was an unrelenting critic of intellectuals and Western ideas. His death marks a step towards the end of an era in which politics has been controlled by ageing revolutionaries and Communist veterans.

Obituary, page 12