() (
October 17 1919 –
January 17 2005 ) was a politician in the
People's Republic Of China . He was
Premier Of The People's Republic Of China from
1980 to
1987 , and
General Secretary of the
Communist Party Of China from
1987 to
1989 . As a high-ranking government
Official , he was a leading
Reformer who implemented
Market reforms that greatly increased production and sought measures to streamline the bloated
Bureaucracy and fight
Corruption . Once slated as
Deng Xiaoping 's successor, Zhao Ziyang was
Purge d for his support of the student demonstrators in the
Tiananmen Square Protests Of 1989 and spent the last fifteen years of his life under
House Arrest .
Zhao was born Zhao Xiuye (赵修业), but changed his given name to Ziyang while attending middle school. The son of a wealthy landlord in
Hua County ,
Henan province, he joined the
Communist Youth League in
1932 and worked underground as a Communist Party official during the
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and subsequent
Chinese Civil War . His father was killed by party officials in the late
1940s . He rose to prominence in the party in
Guangdong from 1951 and introduced numerous successful agricultural reforms. In
1962 , Zhao began to disband
The Commune System in order to return private land to
Peasant s while assigning production contracts to individual households. He also directed a harsh purge of cadres accused of corruption or having ties to the
Kuomintang . By
1965 Zhao was the Party secretary of Guangdong province, despite not being a member of the
Communist Party Central Committee .
As a supporter of the reforms of
Liu Shaoqi , he was dismissed as Guangdong party leader in
1967 during the
Cultural Revolution , paraded through
Guangzhou in a
Dunce Cap and denounced as "a stinking remnant of the landlord class". He spent four years in
Forced Labor at a
Factory . In
1971 he was assigned to work as an official in
Inner Mongolia and then returned to Guangdong in
1972 .
Zhao was
Rehabilitated by
Zhou Enlai in
1973 , appointed to the
Central Committee , and sent to China's largest province,
Sichuan , as first party secretary in 1975. Sichuan had been
Economic ally devastated by the
Great Leap Forward . Zhao turned the province around by introducing radical and successful
Capitalist rural reforms, which led to an increase in industrial production by 81% and agricultural output by 25% within three years.
Deng Xiaoping saw the "Sichuan Experience" as the model for
Chinese Economic Reform and had Zhao inducted into the
Politburo as an alternate member in 1977 and as a full member in 1979. He joined the
Politburo Standing Committee in 1982.
After six months as vice-premier, Zhao was appointed premier in 1980 to replace
Hua Guofeng ,
Mao 's designated successor, who was being pushed out of power by Deng Xiaoping. He developed "
Preliminary Stage Theory ," a course for transforming the
Socialist System that set the stage for much of the later Chinese economic reform. As premier, he implemented many of the policies that were successful in Sichuan, including giving limited self-management to industrial enterprises and increased control over production to peasants. Zhao sought to develop coastal provinces with
Special Economic Zones that could lure
Foreign Investment and create
Export hubs. This led to rapid increases in both agricultural and light-industrial production throughout the
1980s , but his economic reforms were criticized for causing
Inflation . Zhao also persisted in advocating an open
Foreign Policy , fostering good relations with
Western Nations that could aid China's economic development.
Zhao was a solid believer in the party, but he defined socialism much differently than party conservatives. Zhao called political reform "the biggest test facing socialism." He believed economic progress was inextricably linked to
Democratization . As early as
1986 , Zhao became the first high-ranking Chinese leader to call for change, by offering a choice of
Election candidates from the village level all the way up to membership in the Central Committee.
In the 1980s, Zhao was branded by many as a revisionist of
Marxism . He advocated government transparancy and a national dialogue that included ordinary citizens in the policymaking process, which made him popular with the masses. In Sichuan, where Zhao implemented economic restructuring in the 1970s, there was a saying: "要吃粮，找紫阳 (''yao chi liang, zhao Ziyang'')." The wordplay on his name, loosely translated, means "if you want to eat, seek Ziyang."
In January
1987 , Deng forced reformist leader
Hu Yaobang to resign for being too lenient to student protestors; Zhao replaced him as CPC General Secretary, whose vacated premiership was in turn filled by
Li Peng . This put Zhao in the position to succeed Deng as paramount leader. While General Secretary Zhao favored loosening government controls over industry and creating free-enterprise zones in the coastal regions, Premier Li favored a cautious approach that relied more on
Central Planning and guidance.
In the 1987 Communist Party Congress Zhao declared that China was in "a primary stage of socialism" that could last 100 years. Under this premise, China needed to experiment with a variety of
Economic System s to stimulate production. Zhao proposed to separate the roles of the party and state, a proposal that has since become
Taboo . According to western observers, the two years Zhao served as General Secretary were the most open in modern Chinese history—many limitations on
Freedom Of Speech and
Freedom Of Press were relaxed, allowing intellectuals to freely propose improvements for the country.
Zhao's proposal in May 1988 to accelerate price reform led to widespread popular complaints about rampant inflation and gave opponents of rapid reform the opening to call for greater centralization of economic controls and stricter prohibitions against Western influence. This precipitated a political debate, which grew more heated through the winter of 1988 to 1989.
) addressed the student protestors at Tiananmen on May 19, 1989. He apologized to the students, saying "Sorry kids, I have come too late."]]
The death of
Hu Yaobang on
April 15 ,
1989 , coupled with growing economic hardship caused by high inflation, provided the backdrop for the large-scale protest movement of 1989 by
Student s,
Intellectual s, and other parts of a disaffected
Urban population. Student demonstrators, taking advantage of the loosening political atmosphere, reacted to a variety of causes of discontent, which they attributed to the slow pace of reform. Ironically, some of the original invective was also directed against Zhao. The party hardliners increasingly came to the opposite conclusion, regretting an excessively rapid pace of change for causing the mood of confusion and frustration rife among college students. The protesters called for an end to official corruption and for defense of freedoms guaranteed by the
Constitution Of The People's Republic Of China . Protests also spread through many other cities, including
Shanghai and
Guangzhou . These protests were occurring at a time when Communist governments throughout
Eastern Europe were collapsing. Conservative leaders were horrified at the prospect that the Tiananmen protests could topple their government.
The tragic events of the
Tiananmen Square Protests Of 1989 sealed Zhao's fate and rendered impossible any further democratic movement. While he paid an official visit to
Pyongyang the more hard-line leaders used the opportunity to declare the protestors "counter-revolutionary." By the time Zhao returned to Beijing, China's communist leaders
Deng Xiaoping ,
Yang Shangkun and
Li Peng were finalizing their plans to declare
Martial Law and crush the Tiananmen Square democracy protests. On the night of May 18, Zhao was summoned to Deng's home in Zhongnanhai and a hastily called Politburo Standing Committee was called to endorse martial law with Zhao casting the lone dissenting vote. Shortly before 5 A.M. on the morning of May 19, Zhao appeared in Tiananmen Square and wandered among the crowd protestors. Using a bullhorn, he pleaded with them to abandon their vigil saying, "I have come too late. You cannot go on like this. We were once young too, and we had such bursts of energy. We also staged demonstrations, and I remember the situation then. We also did not think of the consequences." This was the last time Zhao was seen in public.
The protestors did not disperse. A day after Zhao's
May 19 visit to Tiananmen Square, Premier Li Peng publicly declared martial law. In the power struggle that ensued, Zhao was stripped of all his positions. What motivated Zhao remains, even today, a topic of debate by many. Some say he went into the square hoping a conciliatory gesture would gain him leverage against hard-liners like Premier
Li Peng . Others believe he supported the protestors, but did not want to see them hurt when the military was called in. After the massacre, Zhao was placed under
House Arrest and replaced as General Secretary by
Jiang Zemin , who had suppressed similar protests in Shanghai without much bloodshed. This process was illegal under the PRC's constitution, as the
National People's Congress was not in session. Legally, only it could dismiss him. The fact that he was removed in this way is one major reason why he was not rehabilitated after his death, as well as why the Tiananmen protestors are still officially labelled as criminals by the PRC government. If the CPC admitted that its handling of Tiananmen was wrong, it would have to address the unconstitutional removal of Zhao from power. If they admit that this action was illegal, the politicians who carried it out would be guilty of
Treason - Jiang Zemin included.
Zhao remained under tight supervision and was allowed to leave his courtyard compound or receive visitors only with permission from the highest echelons of the party. There were occasional reports of him attending the funeral of a dead comrade, visiting other parts of China or playing
Golf at Beijing courses, but the government rather successfully kept him hidden from news reports and history books. Over that period, only a few
Snapshot s of a gray-haired Zhao leaked out to the media. On at least two occasions Zhao wrote letters, addressed to the Chinese government, in which he put forward the case for a reassessment of the Tiananmen Massacre. One of those letters appeared on the eve of the Communist Party's 15th National Congress. The other came during a 1998 visit to China by
U.S. President Bill Clinton . Neither was ever published in mainland China.
In
February 2004 , Zhao had a
Pneumonia attack that led to a severe lung malfunctioning and was hospitalized for three weeks. Zhao was hospitalized again with pneumonia on
December 5 , 2004. Reports of his death were officially denied in early
January 2005 . Later, on
January 15 , he was reported to be in a
Coma after multiple
Strokes . According to activist
Frank Lu , Vice President
Zeng Qinghong visited Zhao in the hospital. Zhao died on
January 17 in a Beijing hospital at 07:01 at the age of 85. He is survived by his second wife, Liang Boqi, and five children (a daughter and four sons).
The government's response to Zhao's death was notably muted, probably out of fear that mass mourning would spark national protests as had occurred after the deaths of s, such as the
Strong Nation Forum and the
SINA.com Forum were flooded with messages expressing condolences for Zhao, but these messages were promptly deleted by
Moderator s, leading to more postings attacking the moderators for deleting the postings.
In
Hong Kong , 10,000–15,000 people attended the candlelight vigil in remembrance of Zhao. Mainlanders such as
Chen Juoyi said that it was illegal for Hong Kong legislators to join any farewell ceremony, stating ''"...under the '
One Country, Two Systems ' a Hong Kong legislator cannot care anything about mainland
China ."'' The statement caused a political storm in Hong Kong that continued for three days after his speech.
Szeto Wah , the chairman of
The Hong Kong Alliance In Support Of Patriotic Democratic Movements In China , said that it was not right for the Communists to suppress the memorial ceremony. The twenty-four pan-democrat legislators went against the chairperson of the
Legislative Council Of Hong Kong , insisting that security be tightened at Tiananmen Square and at Zhao's house, and that the authorities try to prevent any public displays of grief.
Similar memorials were held around the world, notably in
New York City and
Washington, DC where American government officials and exiled dissidents attended.
Zhao's positions would have normally entitled him to a
State Funeral , but the PRC government stated that the funerary arrangements for past leaders had been streamlined and state funerals were no longer held. Sceptics have questioned whether future funerals of Chinese ex-leaders will be as muted as Zhao's.
On acknowledging his contribution to economic reforms, but saying he made "serious mistakes" during the 1989 protests. After the ceremony, Zhao was
Cremated . His ashes were taken to his Beijing home as the government denied him a place at Babaoshan.
In 2005, former NPC Chairman Wan Li joined more than 20 retired Politburo members, including Tian Jiyun, former Vice Premier,
in asking the Central Government to rehabilitate Zhao’s name and hold memorial services for him for his many important contributions to China. The Chinese government agreed to hold a ceremony to honor the late Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang, but the response fell far short of satisfying the requests from both inside and outside the CCP.
