He was to be the latter's paramount leader for the rest of his life.

He was called the paramount leader from 1978 until his death in 1997; he was never president.

The complex of buildings around Zhongnanhai houses China's paramount leaders.

"There is no such thing as a paramount leader," he added, using Deng's title toward the end of his career.

His role as paramount leader was not to rule outright but to guide the younger generation of leaders.

Western officials say that the 90-year-old paramount leader is extremely frail and that his doctors are using life support systems to sustain him.

He continued to be widely regarded as the "paramount leader" of the country, believed to have backroom control.

"Deng's role as paramount leader has withered," one China analyst said.

Until the mid-1990s, the paramount leader was able to wield power without necessarily holding any official or formally significant governmental position.

For the paramount Communist leader to call for theoretical "revision" is a very big thing.