For months last year he was battered by a savage campaign of vilification. He grew gaunt, pallid, tense. In May, he checked into a Peking hospital, rumored to be suffering from a heart attack. Except for an occasional brief visit by a foreign dignitary, almost nothing was heard from him; only twice did he venture from his hospital sanctuary, and then for short, if theatrical, appearances at state banquets. Analysts in the West wondered if the combination of political and physical illness might not spell the end of a long and illustrious...
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