by Adi Ignatius
The damage to his political standing had been done. His opponents began a concerted effort to oust him. Zhao’s job became increasingly difficult. He had won impressive victories in his earlier efforts to keep reforms on track. He had neutralized the Anti-Liberalization Campaign in 1987. He had coined the phrase “the initial stage of socialism” as a theoretical basis for China’s adoption of free market policies in this first phase of its evolution.
But political reform was a thornier issue. At one point Zhao did write a letter to Deng urging him “to establish a much-needed system of leadership,” which suggested problems with the existing autocratic system. Deng got the letter but not the message. Deng had once spoken of the need for “political reform” and for more democracy within the Party, but that was when his political rival Hua Guofeng was the one with too much power. After Deng himself became the top leader, he never talked that way again. In general, Deng’s idea of “political reform” did not go beyond administrative reforms to make the Party more efficient.
Zhao mostly accepted Deng’s dominance because it helped him fend off other elders on economic matters. When Deng at one stage suggested retiring from the Politburo Standing Committee, Zhao attempted to persuade him to stay on; he needed Deng. But when Zhao prepared to present a series of political reforms at the 13th Party Congress, Deng imposed limits on them that Zhao had no choice but to accept. Deng wanted no part of the Western system: “Let there be not even a trace of tripartite separation of powers.”
Zhao recognized that the Party needed to change the way it governed. Without crossing Deng, Zhao proposed a “separation of power between Party and state.” The proposal was passed by the Party Congress but was later resisted by Party officials at all levels who were not willing to give up their authority. Serious political reform never got off the ground.
With the eruption of the student demonstrations of 1989, Zhao ran out of time. When Deng decided to call in the military, Zhao made clear he could not take part in such a decision. He was not the only top leader who was hesitant: Deng was unable to win over the majority of the five-member Politburo Standing Committee. So Deng, experienced in sweeping aside Party and government procedures when he needed, won the support of a prominent old general, Yang Shangkun, who guaranteed his control over the military.
After the protests were suppressed, Deng had to grapple with his own legacy. If the hard-line victory ended up killing economic reform as well, Deng would face the terrible prospect of being known as the butcher of Tiananmen who defended an indefensible regime and squandered the prestige he had gained earlier from the nation’s economic progress.
And so he set out to change things. In 1992, he went on a celebrated tour of the booming cities along the southern coast. It was a clear signal to China’s leaders that economic reforms should proceed—that no one should try to stop them. The move helped force the 14th Party Congress later that year to reaffirm further reforms.
By then the Soviet Union had crumbled. With that collapse hanging over their heads, China’s conservatives—who had lost the trust of the people after the Tiananmen Massacre, and had ditched economic reform but shown themselves unable to improve the economy—were pushed into compliance. They had come to realize that the massacre had consolidated the Party’s authoritarian rule. With a renewed sense of security, they stopped worrying and prospered.
Today, twenty years on, economic reforms have roared ahead, and capitalism—a stock market, a real estate market, private business—has taken hold. And yet, just as Zhao realized in his later years while under house arrest in his lonely courtyard house, corruption is crippling the system and undermining the people’s belief in the government’s ability to improve their lives. Without political reform, with no checks and balances, the market is distorted, manipulated by corrupt officials and dirty dealing. The nation is still ruled by men, not by law. While in seclusion, Zhao ultimately concluded that to make progress, China would be better off with a Western parliamentary system. But his conceptual breakthrough came only after he had been silenced.
Zhao Ziyang had no interest in being a visionary. He was a pragmatist who wanted to solve real problems. He led his country through confusion and chaos and made difficult choices for the sake of improving the lives of others. He did his duty. His legacy, recorded here, will ensure he does not fade from history.
A Brief Biography of Zhao Ziyang
Based on a Chinese version compiled by Li Shuqiao, former secretary of Zhao Ziyang.
1919 October 17
Born in Hua County, Henan Province
1932
Joins the Communist Youth League
1933 August
Enrolls in Henan Province Kaifeng Junior High School
1935 December
Participates in Communist Party activities; organizes student demonstrations against the Japanese, a first step on his path of political activism
1936 August
Enrolls in Hubei Province Wuchang High School
1937 July
Drops out of school as Japanese Imperial Army launches full-scale invasion of China; returns to his home province of Henan, which soon becomes occupied territory and where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forms an organized resistance against the Japanese
1938 February
Joins the CCP
1939 January
Becomes Party secretary of Hua County, starting his career as a civilian administrator within the CCP organization
1949 March
Becomes CCP secretary of Nanyang Region, Henan Province
1951
Leaves his home province of Henan for Guangdong, beginning a long and successful career as a provincial administrator
1958–60
Mao’s Great Leap Forward campaign
1962
Becomes second Party secretary of Guangdong Province and participates in the meeting—known as the Seven Thousand Cadres Work Conference—where party veteran Liu Shaoqi publicly disagrees with Mao on key policy issues
Experiments with halting the communes and contracting land back to private farmers as a “temporary” measure to recover from the disastrous Great Leap Forward
1965
At the age of forty-six, becomes the youngest provincial Party chief as he rises to the position of first Party secretary of Guangdong Province
1966–76
Mao’s Cultural Revolution
1967
Temporarily detained at Guangzhou Military Command Center as part of the Cultural Revolution purge to cleanse officialdom of supporters of “revisionist” policies (policies that were moderate in contrast to Mao’s)
1970
Works as a fitter at Xiangzhong Mechanics Factory of Lianyuan County, Hunan Province
1971 April
Named CCP secretary of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and deputy director of its Revolutionary Committee; this marks his reinstatement after being purged
1972 April
Returns to Guangdong as Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee
1973 August
Becomes a member of the CCP’s Central Committee
1974
Becomes first Party secretary of Guangdong Province
1975 October
Sent by Deng Xiaoping to become first Party secretary of Sichuan Province; the rural reform policy that he initiates in Sichuan is one of the first of its kind and becomes a model of success in the effort to dismantle Mao’s people’s communes
1977 August
Named alternate member of the Politburo, the beginning of his ascendance to top leadership positions
1979 September
Becomes a member of the Politburo
1980 February
Becomes a member of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC)
1980 March
Takes charge of the nation’s economic affairs as leader of the Central Economic and Financial Leading Group
1980 April
Becomes Vice Premier of the
State Council
1980 September
Becomes Premier of the State Council
1982 September
Renewed as member of the PSC at the First Plenum of the 12th Central Committee
1984 December 19
Signs Sino-British Joint Declaration with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Beijing for the return of sovereignty over Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997
1986 October
Becomes leader of a new group with the mandate of proposing a political reform package, the Study Group for the Reform of the Political System. Other members are Hu Qili, Tian Jiyun, Bo Yibo, and Peng Chong
1987 January
Becomes Acting General Secretary of the CCP
1987 October
At the 13th Party Congress, declares that China is at the “initial stage of socialism,” thereby clearing the way for further market transformations; also proposes the one and only political reform package in CCP history, attempting to change “the way the CCP governs,” that is, to introduce reforms such as the separation of power between Party and state
Becomes general secretary and first vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, and remains a member of the PSC
1989 April 15
Hu Yaobang dies, sparking the student demonstrations
1989 April 22
Proposes a three-point approach to the student demonstrations: encourages a return to class, holding dialogues, and using the law to punish only those who have committed crimes
1989 April 26
People’s Daily publishes Deng’s condemnation of the student demonstrations, which escalates tensions into a serious political crisis
1989 May 4
Delivers speech to Asian Development Bank delegates that calls for dealing with the demonstrations “based on the principles of democracy and law”
1989 May 17
Participates in the meeting at Deng Xiaoping’s house where Deng decides to impose martial law; Zhao says he would find it difficult to carry out such a decision
1989 May 19
Visits student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square and gives an impromptu speech pleading with them to leave the square, knowing that an army assault is imminent. It is his last public appearance
1989 June
An enlarged Politburo meeting is held to criticize Zhao and strip him of all his positions. This begins his sixteen years of isolation and house arrest
1997 February 19
Deng Xiaoping dies
1997 September 12
Sends a letter while under house arrest to the 15th Party Congress appealing to the leaders for a reassessment of the crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989
2005 January 17
Dies in Beijing
Who Was Who
AN ZHIWEN (1919–) was deputy director of the State Commission for Economic Reform and a member of the Central Economic and Financial Leading Group from 1987 to 1992. An was an ardent supporter of reform.
IVAN ARKHIPOV (1907–98) was the Soviet first deputy prime minister who in the 1950s led Moscow’s efforts to lend technological aid to China. Arkhipov was regarded as a friend of China for his role in helping to draw up its first Five-Year Plan.
BAO TONG (1932–) was a member of the Central Committee and was entrusted by Zhao to formulate plans for political reform as director of the Political Reform Research Institute of the Central Committee. Bao was Zhao’s secretary in the early years of his premiership. In 1989, Bao supported Zhao in opposing Deng’s decision for a military crackdown on Tiananmen protesters. As punishment he was jailed for seven years.
BO YIBO (1908–2007) was one of the most influential Party elders. Bo was vice chairman of the Central Advisory Commission from 1982 to 1987.
CHEN GUODONG (1911–2005) was the Communist Party’s secretary of Shanghai in 1979. From 1985 to 1992, he was the director of the Party’s Shanghai Advisory Committee.
CHEN JUNSHENG (1927–2002) was the Communist Party’s secretary of Heilongjiang Province. He became a member of the State Council in 1988.
CHEN XITONG (1930–) was mayor of Beijing and played an important role in channeling the course of events toward the crackdown on protesters in 1989. Chen’s report, published in June that year, was the only official account of what happened in the military assault. Chen was expelled from the Communist Party in 1997 and sentenced in 1998 to sixteen years in prison on bribery and corruption charges.
CHEN YEPING (1915–94) was Director of the Department of Organization and became a member of the Central Advisory Commission in the 1980s.
CHEN YIZI (1940–) was director of the State Research Institute of Economic Reform. In 1989, during the Tiananmen protests, Chen organized and published a statement that informed the public about Zhao’s resignation and called on people to oppose the looming crackdown. Chen has lived in exile in the United States ever since.
CHEN YUN (1905–95) was, after Deng Xiaoping, the most influential of the Party elders. Chen won praise for the quick and successful stabilization of China’s war-torn economy and for the first Five-Year Plan, based on the Soviet economic model in the early 1950s. His practical approach was swept aside by Mao Zedong’s desire for a speedy transition to a socialist economy. Chen’s political comeback in the post-Mao era was marked by his insistence on planned economics in the era of reform. From 1982 to 1987, Chen was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and chairman of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission. From 1987 to 1992, he was chairman of the Central Advisory Commission.
DENG LIQUN (1915–) was the Director of the Propaganda Department from 1982 to 1987. An ardent Mao loyalist, Deng became the voice of the conservatives in the reform era and could count on the support of Chen Yun, Li Xiannian, and other Party elders.
DENG MAOMAO (1950–) is the nickname of Deng Xiaoping’s third daughter, Deng Rong. She is the deputy director of the China International Friendship Association.
DENG XIAOPING (1904–97) was China’s undisputed leader during the years of transition after Mao, from 1981 to 1997. He supported economic liberalization, and the success of the Reform and Open-Door Policy earned him enormous prestige and strengthened his power base. Politically, Deng insisted on continuing one-party rule and was responsible for the crackdown on political dissent in 1979 (the “Democracy Wall” movement) as well as the violent response to the 1989 Tiananmen protests. Deng was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee from 1977 to 1987 and chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1981 to 1990.
DING GUAN’GEN (1929–) was Minister of Railways and an alternate member of the Politburo in the 1980s.
DING SHISUN (1927–) was the president of Peking University from 1984 to 1989 and vice chairman of the China Democratic League from 1988 to 1996.
DU DAOZHENG (1923–) was the director of the General Administration of Press and Publications from 1987 to 1989. Du is an outspoken supporter of reform.
DU RUNSHENG (1913–) was a director of both the Communist Party’s Research Office of Rural Reform and of the State Council Center for Development Studies from 1983 to 1989. Du is a well-respected leader in the field of rural reform.
FANG LIZHI (1936–) was first vice president of the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, Anhui Province, and a professor of astrophysics. Fang sympathized with the earlier round of student protests in 1986–87 and was removed from his official posts and expelled from the Party. He is now living in exile in the United States.
FEI XIAOTONG (1910–2005) was a professor of sociology at Peking University and the chairman of the China Democratic League from 1987 to 1996.
HENRY FOK (1923–2006), also known as Huo Yingdong, was a Hong Kong entrepreneur. Fok was a longtime supporter of the mainland government, serving as the vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in 1993.
MILTON FRIEDMAN (1912–2006) was an American economist, Nobel laureate, and influential proponent of free market economics. In 1988, Friedman w
as received by General Secretary Zhao Ziyang in Beijing, where he praised Zhao as “the best economist I have ever met from a socialist country.” Friedman’s ideas and advice played an important role in shaping economic policies in post-Mao China.
GAO YANG (1909–) was president of the Central Party School of the Central Committee from 1987 to 1989 and a member of the Central Advisory Commission.
MIKHAIL GORBACHEV (1931–) was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, the last Soviet leader before the collapse of the U.S.S.R. His perestroika (restructuring) program brought liberal changes to the Soviet Union.
GU MU (1914–) became Vice Premier and director of the State Capital Construction Commission in 1975. He was a member of the State Council from 1982 to 1988.