Awaiting a Democratic Hong Kong
BEIJING
Chinese leaders imposed a ban on media reports Monday about the death
of Zhao Ziyang, a former Communist Party chief who opposed the 1989
crackdown on democracy protesters, suggesting that his official
obituary will treat him as a pariah.
The Xinhua news agency issued a terse dispatch announcing that Zhao,
who was 85, had died early Monday morning. But the news agency
identified Zhao simply as a "comrade," not as China’s former top
political leader, and the main evening news broadcast made no mention
of his passing.
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Beijing bans media reports on Zhao
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By Joseph Kahn The New York Times Tuesday, January 18, 2005 |
BEIJING
Chinese leaders imposed a ban on media reports Monday about the death
of Zhao Ziyang, a former Communist Party chief who opposed the 1989
crackdown on democracy protesters, suggesting that his official
obituary will treat him as a pariah.
The Xinhua news agency issued a terse dispatch announcing that Zhao,
who was 85, had died early Monday morning. But the news agency
identified Zhao simply as a "comrade," not as China’s former top
political leader, and the main evening news broadcast made no mention
of his passing.
Editors said that propaganda officials ordered television stations and
newspapers not to report about Zhao, and popular Web sites were
instructed to ban public discussion of the former leader.
The tight control suggested that President Hu Jintao may not permit
even a modest posthumous rehabilitation of Zhao, who enjoyed popularity
among some former colleagues, as well as many critics of the government
at home and abroad. It remained unclear whether the state would allow
Zhao a public funeral.
The former top leader became an unusual icon of dissent when he
publicly argued against the use of force to crush democracy protesters
in Beijing in May 1989. He lost an internal power struggle and was
stripped of his titles shortly before the army killed hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of demonstrators around the capital on June 4 of that year.
Political analysts said the initial handling of Zhao’s death shows that
Hu, who consolidated his hold on power last fall, wants to prevent any
possibility of re-examining the Beijing killings.
"Whatever people think of Zhao as a leader, there is no question that
he was the living symbol of Tiananmen," said a newspaper editor in
Beijing, who asked to remain anonymous, referring to the central square
in Beijing where democracy protests took place.
"Leaders may feel that if the verdict on Zhao changes, people will use that to reassess the crackdown," he said.
Some have already begun using Zhao’s death for that purpose.
Among expressions of support for Zhao on Monday was an impassioned
statement from a group known as Tiananmen Mothers, whose members lost
relatives during the violent suppression.
"It was a blessing to have a leader who could lead the public
peacefully toward freedom, democracy, wealth and strength," the
statement said. "The only ray of hope for our troubled nation was
extinguished" when he died, it said.
Leaders in Japan and Taiwan called on China to take steps toward democracy.
"I want them to make efforts for democratization," Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi of Japan said in commenting on Zhao’s death,
according to the Jiji Press news agency.
In Taiwan, Chen Chi-mai, a spokesman for the cabinet, said Beijing should "face the truth about Tiananmen Square."
Security was tight around the capital. But there was no sign of popular
protests, as occurred shortly after the deaths of Zhou Enlai, the
longtime premier, and Hu Yaobang, Zhao’s predecessor as Communist Party
chief in the 1980s.
In fact, some political observers in Beijing said the eulogies for Zhao
tended to exaggerate his achievements. He opposed some proposals for
opening the economy, such as starting a stock market, that were
embraced only after he lost power, these people said.
While Zhao may have envisioned political changes, he did little to
implement them when he was in office, and often punished those who
voiced contrarian views, critics said.
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 