Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang

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In May 1988, Zhao proposed accelerating price reform. Because it caused inflation, this led to a huge debate about the proper way to proceed, and gave an opening to the hard-liners like Lie Peng and Yao Yilin who were becoming concerned about Zhao’s views. Zhao found himself in multi-front turf battles with these party elders. By the beginning of 1989, Zhao was fighting for his own political survival. As it happened, the student protests triggered by the sudden death of former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang, widely seen as a reform-minded leader, provided Zhao with a golden opportunity to regain the political upper-hand and to advance his reform agenda. But that’s not what happened.