(
May 25 ,
1907 –
September 14 ,
1998 ) was
President Of The People's Republic Of China from
1988 to
1993 , and was permanent Vice-chair of the
Central Military Commission .
Born in Tongnan,
Sichuan province, he was a veteran of the
Long March . He held a senior position in the Central Committee of the
Communist Party Of China (CPC) from 1956 to 1966, but was demoted during the
Cultural Revolution . He was rehabilitated in 1978 and was elected to the Politburo in 1982.
During the
Tiananmen Protests Of 1989 , Yang used his authority as President to declare martial law, and in cooperation with
Deng Xiaoping , who was the
Chairman Of The Central Military Commission , to order the June 1989 military crackdown against student pro-democracy demonstrators in
Tiananmen Square ,
Beijing . His nephew, Yang Jianhua, commanded the highly disciplined 27th Group Army, which was brought in from
Hebei province to suppress the demonstrators.
Extremely influential in the
People's Liberation Army , he was removed by
Deng Xiaoping in
1992 for attempting to replace
Jiang Zemin as party leader.
He is considered as one of the
Eight Immortals Of Communist China .
