PEKING -- Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said today the Communist Party will not tolerate capitalist trends and warned of a long fight against 'bourgeois liberalization' in the wake of student unrest.
'At present there is an ideological trend of advocating bourgeois liberalization,' the official Xinhua News Agency paraphrased Deng as telling visiting Finnish Communist Party chief Arvo Aalto. 'China's Marxists will not agree to this.'
Bourgeois liberalism -- a catchphrase for advocating capitalism - has been officially blamed for the wave of student demonstrations for more democracy and freedom that affected at least 13 cities from Dec. 5-Jan. 1.
A Communist Party spokesman, meanwhile, refused today to reveal whether Hu Yaobang is still general secretary of the party or has been removed from the organization's top post.
'Comrade Hu Yaobang is not in good health. That is why he does not meet with foreign guests,' said party spokesman Wu Xingtang, responding to questions on why Hu has not been seen in public for two weeks.
Western diplomats said the enigmatic statement fueled speculation over the status of the party chief, reported to have been in deep political trouble since late last month.
Earlier this week Hu was unable to meet with a Japanese visitor because he was fatigued, Chinese officials said.
Finnish officials said today they were told Hu was not well and would not meet Finnish Communist Party leader Arvo Aalto, the highest ranking Finnish communist to visit China in more than 20 years. He met Deng instead.
Asked if Hu, 71, remains chief of the Communist Party, Wu replied: 'I can neither confirm nor deny this.'
One Western diplomat said the statement indicated Hu was in 'deep trouble.'
'With a statement like this they are just fueling speculation that the answer should be no,' another diplomat said.
Hu, considered the second most powerful man in China after Deng, has reportedly been criticized by Deng for being soft on liberals pushing for democratic reforms.
China is believed to be verging on a purge of 'bourgeois liberals,' defined as those who oppose socialism and favor capitalism, blaming the trend for inciting a recent wave of pro-democracy student demonstrations in 13 Chinese cities.
A Chinese source said Hu's opponents -- both reformers and hard-line communists -- were using the recent unrest to attempt his ouster.
The Kyodo News Agency of Japan reported that Deng had asked Hu to step down from the party leadership post, but Hu refused.
'There is something very serious going on in Peking and Hu Yaobang is at the center of it,' one Western diplomat said.
A Chinese source said Hu dropped from sight after learning he would be replaced by Premier Zhao Ziyang at the party's 13th congress scheduled for October.
The source said Hu, for 40 years a close ally of Deng and party leader since February 1980, would be given the largely ceremonial post of chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference.
As part of a purge of liberal reformers, the powerful Central Discipline Inspection Commission issued a nationwide directive ordering the Communist Party's 44 million members to 'struggle firmly' against wayward comrades -- 'no matter who he is, no matter how high his position and no matter how big his reputation.'
Wang Ruowang, an outspoken writer who allegedly expressed open support for capitalism, became the first known victim of the purge when he was expelled from the party Wednesday.
Xinhua said Wang 'had advocated, in speeches and articles, bourgeois liberalization' and had opposed communism.
