Mao legend reportedly to be deemphasized

The Chinese leadership finally plans to discredit Mao Tse-Tung by tearing down his mausoleum and removing his body to a humbler resting place, the Far Eastern Economic Review said Thursday. The weekly magazine said in an article to be published Friday that the "final debunking" of Mao was only being delayed by Vice-Chairman Ye Jianying. It said Marshal Ye wanted to wait until he was dead before his colleagues denounced a man he still considered a great revolutionary. The Hong Kong-datelined story, which quotes Chinese Communist Party sources, says Marshal Ye showed no sign of dying, so the mausoleum story was leaked ahead of time by supporters of Vice-Chairman Deng Xiaoping.