Zhao Ziyang, who was purged as China's Communist Party leader following the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, is ill but in stable condition, the government said Tuesday, denying a report that he had died. "Zhao Ziyang is an old man, more than 80 years old," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said at a regular media briefing. "He fell ill a couple of days ago, but now his condition is stable. Some reported his death on the eighth of this month but this is totally not true."
