The family of deposed Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang (
Zhao was purged and kept under house arrest for 15-and-a-half years until his death for opposing the bloody military crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protesters. But even in death, he was unfree.
PHOTO: AFP
Hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes police guarded the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery Saturday, and kept out hundreds of people who turned up to pay their last respects to the man who had been China's premier and Communist Party chief.
Zhao's closest relatives said they had little say in the funeral that the Chinese authorities insisted on organizing and were upset by the government's interference in matters that should normally have been left up to the family.
There was a news blackout ahead of the funeral. The government censored the funeral guest list and blocked people -- including many who were invited by the family -- from attending the funeral.
Bao Tong, Zhao's closest aide, and other dissidents were banned from leaving home to attend the funeral as the government sought to keep the ceremony low-key to prevent it becoming a rallying point for those dissatisfied with the Communist Party.
Elderly protestors and ordinary citizens turned up outside the cemetery, but were turned away. Wearing white headbands, petitioners held pictures of Zhao and cried bitterly for the leader they called "a good man." Family members were not allowed to decorate the funeral hall and were forbidden from putting up traditional calligraphy scrolls of eulogies for the deceased.
"Advocating democracy and conscience, your family is proud of you. You are gone, you are free at last, but your spirit will live on forever," one couplet had said.
A family member said Zhao never regretted his decision to oppose the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement. He was purged for "supporting the turmoil and splitting the party" by taking a sympathetic stance towards the students. His last public appearance was on May 19, 1989, when he tearfully begged students to end their hunger strike.
"He never regretted his choice. He left in peace and he had no regrets," she said. "We were often angry about lots of things on his behalf, but he was always very calm."
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS