Despite strong internal opposition, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) later this week will officially restore the reputation of a liberal-leaning leader whose death helped inspire pro-democracy protests.
"In the middle of November, a commemoration to mark the 90th anniversary of Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦) will be held in Beijing," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) told a briefing yesterday.
"The central leadership, the party, political and military and other leaders from the grassroots will be present at the meeting, and the central leadership will deliver a speech," he said.
PHOTO: AP
The party has not publicly honored Hu Yaobang since his death in April 1989, which gave rise to student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Those protests, against corruption, inflation and political repression, persisted until the army violently suppressed them on June 4 of that year.
President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) decided early this year to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Hu Yaobang's birth. Party observers said the president aimed to soften his hard-line image and strengthen the 72-million-member Communist Youth League, his political base within the CCP.
The youth league was also considered to be the support network of the late Hu, who lost his position as CCP general secretary after a power struggle in 1987.
While restoring the stature of Hu Yaobang is unlikely to lead to a broad political opening soon, it does give a glimpse of the complex politicking within the ruling elite.
It also shows the enduring sensitivity of the people and events connected with the 1989 protests.
Observers say the June 4 killings will haunt the party until it can acknowledge having bloodily suppressed the mainly peaceful pro-democracy protests and pays respect to the hundreds of people killed, injured or purged in the crackdown.
Hu Jintao persisted in his decision about Hu Yaobang's birthday even though four of the nine members of the Politburo's Standing Committee expressed concern that the move could threaten stability, said people who had been told about the debate.
The four, one of whom was Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), were said to have different reasons for their opposition. But all were said to have argued that the move could risk giving people the idea that the circumstances surrounding the 1989 demonstrations, which the CCP has condemned as an anti-government plot, might be open for discussion.
Opposition to the commemoration was first reported earlier this month by Open, a political magazine based in Hong Kong, and was confirmed by people close to the late leader's family.
Hu Jintao is said to have overruled the objections and ordered the commemoration to proceed, arguing that while students may have invoked the late Hu's name when their protests began, the former leader had no responsibility for the demonstrations.
But possibly reflecting the sensitivity, President Hu has dropped plans to attend the memorial ceremony in person and rescheduled it to take place on Friday, when he will meet in South Korea with other Asian and Pacific leaders, instead of Sunday, the actual 90th anniversary of Hu Yaobang's birth.
The ceremony will amount to a posthumous rehabilitation for Hu, who is remembered as having favored a faster pace of political change than other officials considered prudent.
The fact that his death precipitated the Tiananmen Square protests left his legacy in limbo. The party did not publish the usual account of his life and achievements.
The commemoration will be held at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square and is to be attended by 300 people, including current and retired leaders and intellectuals, most of them invited by Hu's surviving relatives.
There will also be services in Hunan Province, where Hu was born, and Jiangxi Province, the historical base of the Communist Youth League.
People close to the family said at least three members of the Politburo Standing Committee would attend the Beijing event: Wu Guanzheng (
Wen was prevailed on to make an appearance despite having expressed concern that restoring Hu's stature could lead to calls to rehabilitate Zhao Ziyang (
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
RSS