Qin Jiwei

China's Defense Minister Qin Jiwei, who was reported in the West to have been under detention, was shown on state television Saturday attending a funeral service for a veteran revolutionary. Qin was among senior leaders, including Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin and hard-line Premier Li Peng, who attended the funeral in Beijing for Gen. Fu Zhong.

China's Defense Minister Qin Jiwei, who was reported in the West to have been under detention, was shown on state television Saturday attending a funeral service for a veteran revolutionary. Qin was among senior leaders, including Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin and hard-line Premier Li Peng, who attended the funeral in Beijing for Gen. Fu Zhong.

China's top leaders and generals today congratulated the army for suppressing June's pro-democracy demonstrations, but foreign ambassadors in Beijing protested by boycotting the Army Day celebrations. In a speech Defense Minister Gen. Qin Jiwei twice praised Deng Xiaoping in what appears to be a growing personality cult surrounding the 84-year-old senior leader.

China's Defense Ministry on Friday denied a Western report that Defense Minister Qin Jiwei had been detained by troops loyal to the president. "It's pure rumor-mongering," a ministry official said when asked to comment on the report from Hong Kong by a Western news agency. The agency said that Qin was seized at his Beijing residence Wednesday evening as a result of a struggle with President Yang Shangkun for control over China's military.

Soldiers loyal to China's president detained the defense minister and several commanders in a dispute over a top military post vacated by Zhao Ziyang, the purged Communist Party boss, Chinese sources said today. They said President Yang Shangkun, a central figure in the martial law crackdown, apparently ordered the action to strengthen his control of the Chinese military.

Eight senior Chinese leaders, including the president and defense minister, are stepping down from the Communist Party's ruling Politburo, a Beijing-controlled newspaper reported Friday. The retirements from the 14-member Politburo imply that many of these leaders will also step down from government positions at next spring's National People's Congress, or Parliament.

Troops have pulled out of Beijing in large numbers this week, diplomats said Thursday, but China's Communist Party leaders indicated that martial law in the capital would continue. A city of tents near Shahe airport, outside the capital, has disappeared and troops from the northeastern city of Shenyang sent to put down the student-led democracy movement in June have returned to base.

The Chinese government, attempting to quell rampant rumors about the failing health of senior leader Deng Xiaoping that sent stock markets reeling, declared Tuesday that there was "no great change" in the 92-year-old's condition. "There has been no great change in Comrade Deng Xiaoping's health situation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang Guoqiang said. "I have no new information to provide."

The National People's Congress on Tuesday approved a new Chinese Cabinet, including new ministers of defense and foreign affairs. The congress also approved constitutional amendments confirming the legality of private enterprise and allowing land-use rights to be bought and sold. Qian Qichen, 60, who speaks Russian and English and has dealt with Soviet affairs as a vice foreign minister, replaced Wu Xueqian, 60, as foreign minister. Wu was named one of three vice premiers. Gen.

The Bush Administration is sending a top State Department official to Beijing early next week to explain to the Chinese leadership the President's decision to reverse 10 years of American policy by permitting the sale of U.S. F-16 warplanes to Taiwan, Administration sources said Wednesday. The official, Assistant Secretary of State William Clark Jr., will argue that the Administration is not violating a 1982 arms communique worked out between the United States and China.

Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci, summing up two days of talks with Chinese leaders, said Wednesday that he believes Beijing will exercise restraint in future weapons sales abroad and that the United States will boost its technical assistance to China's military modernization. Speaking at a news conference, Carlucci declared he is satisfied by Chinese explanations of future policy on what has been the divisive issue of missile sales.