Beijing journalist Gao Yu says Chinese authorities placed her under surveillance ahead of the 107th anniversary of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Zhao Ziyang’s birth on Oct. 17. Her account comes as Beijing prepares for the Fifth Plenum of the CCP’s 20th Central Committee, scheduled to open Oct. 26.
Zhao, a leading advocate of political reform, was purged after opposing the leadership’s hard-line response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Accounts of his conversations during those years also reveal his criticism of successor Jiang Zemin and his assessments of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao.
Gao Yu reports renewed police surveillance
In an Oct. 16 account, Gao said guards had monitored her residence from Oct. 11 to 14. “Today I finally understood” the reasons, she wrote, naming the fourth anniversary of the Sitong Bridge protest and Beijing’s two-day forum on handling public complaints. The city government confirms that the forum took place Oct. 12–13 at the China National Convention Center.
Gao said a friend had been instructed by police not to leave home on Oct. 17 or 18. Asked why, the officer reportedly replied, “I don’t know.” Gao added that she had received no formal police notice herself but had heard security deployments would continue across Beijing through Oct. 19. She expected a heavy police presence at Tianshou Cemetery in Changping, where Zhao and his wife, Liang Boqi, were buried together in 2019.
Taiwan’s Central News Agency separately reported allegations that a leaked CCP directive prescribed 18 security measures for the approaching plenum, including restrictions on unauthorized drone flights and displays of anti-government slogans. The document was publicized by the overseas outlet Breaking Point Weekly; its authenticity could not be independently established.
For the best of our weekly content！
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Check your email to complete sign up
Zhao’s opposition to the Tiananmen crackdown
Zhao was born on Oct. 17, 1919, and became CCP general secretary in 1987. When student-led demonstrations swept Beijing in 1989, he advocated dialogue rather than military intervention. In a May 17 statement published by the People’s Daily, Zhao described students’ demands for democracy, the rule of law and action against corruption as expressions of “patriotic enthusiasm.”
His stance put him at odds with Deng Xiaoping and other senior leaders. On May 19, Zhao visited hunger-striking protesters at Tiananmen Square and told them, “We came too late.” It was his last public appearance as party chief. Martial law followed, and troops killed demonstrators and bystanders during the crackdown of June 3–4.
In secret recordings published after his death as Prisoner of the State, Zhao explained his decision: “I refused to become the general secretary who mobilized the military to crack down on students.” He was removed from office and confined to his Beijing residence until his death on Jan. 17, 2005.
House arrest and criticism of Jiang Zemin
Zong Fengming, a longtime acquaintance, visited Zhao more than 100 times between 1991 and 2004, often presenting himself as a qigong practitioner. His notes were published in 2007 as Zhao Ziyang: Captive Conversations. Zong described a former leader whose movements, visitors and contacts remained tightly controlled. Recalling Zhao’s nearly deserted courtyard in his final years, Zong wrote that the scene filled him with “a sense of desolation.”
The book records Zhao’s criticism of Jiang Zemin for remaining chairman of the Central Military Commission after Hu Jintao replaced him as CCP general secretary in 2002. Zhao called Jiang’s decision “a very bad precedent” and “a regression in the political system,” arguing that it would encourage future leaders to retain power after formally stepping down. He also ridiculed Jiang’s claim to military expertise, noting that Jiang had neither served as a soldier nor commanded a battle.
According to Zong’s account, Zhao viewed Hu as personally decent but constrained by party ideology. He considered Premier Wen Jiabao more receptive to reform, though too cautious to challenge the political system’s established hierarchy. These judgments are Zhao’s reported private remarks, as recorded by Zong, rather than independently recorded interviews.
Original article
Comments