Zhao Ziyang (
The cause of death wasn't immediately announced, but the official Xinhua News Agency said Zhao suffered from multiple ailments of the respiratory and cardiovascular system and died "after failing to respond to all emergency treatment."
"He was very peaceful," said Frank Lu, a Hong Kong-based human-rights activist who said he had spoken to Zhao's daughter, Wang Yannan. "He was surrounded by all his family."
Zhao had lived under house arrest for 15 years. A premature report of his death last week prompted the Chinese government to break its long silence about him and disclose that he had been hospitalized.
Zhao, a former premier and dapper, articulate protege of the late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), helped forge bold economic reforms in the 1980s that brought China new prosperity and flung open its doors to the outside world.
In the end, he fell out of favor with Deng and was purged on June 24, 1989, after the military crushed the student-led, pro-democracy protests, killing hundreds and possibly thousands of people.
Zhao was accused of "splitting the party" by supporting demonstrators who wanted a faster pace of democratic reform.
He was last seen in public on May 19, 1989, the day before martial law was declared in Beijing, when he made a tearful visit to Tiananmen Square to talk to student hunger strikers.
He apologized to the students, saying "I have come too late."
"The Chinese leadership owes him a lot," said Yan Jiaqi, a former Zhao aide, in comments broadcast on Hong Kong Cable TV.
"I hope to see the Beijing leadership formally express to the entire nation that Zhao Ziyang was the people's good premier," Yan said.
The government took steps to minimize any public reaction to Zhao's death.
The official announcement to the people was limited to a two-sentence Xinhua report carried by Web sites and afternoon newspapers. But Xinhua sent an advisory telling radio and TV broadcasters not to use it. CNN broadcasts to hotels and apartment complexes for foreigners were blacked out when they mentioned Zhao.
Police blocked reporters from entering the lane in central Bei-jing where Zhao had lived under guard in a walled villa. Ren Wanding, a veteran dissident, said police showed up outside his Beijing home late yesterday morning and were preventing him from leaving.
Reports said Zhao occasionally traveled to the provinces. He sometimes was seen teeing off at Beijing golf courses or paying respects at the funerals of dead comrades, but otherwise remained hidden.
Usually seen in tailored Western suits, Zhao served as premier from 1980 to 1987, then took over as general secretary of the Communist Party, the most powerful post in China, under Deng, who remained paramount leader.
"He introduced capitalism to China," said David Shambaugh, the director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University.
"Deng ... had instincts but not a lot of specific ideas about how to implement certain policies. Zhao gave specificity to those instincts," Shambaugh said.
Zhao's 1989 downfall was not his first. Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) Red Guards dragged him from his home in Guangzhou in 1967 and paraded him through the streets with a dunce cap before sending him off for years of internal exile.
During the 1989 protests, Zhao called for compromise and expressed sympathy for some of the demonstrators' demands.
But his adversaries, led by then premier Li Peng (
Also see stories:
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS