Chinese leaders will hold a low-key, closed commemoration today to honour Hu Yaobang, the reform-minded former party secretary whose death in 1989 triggered a mass uprising against the ruling communists in Beijing.
The ceremony is ostensibly to mark the 90th anniversary of Hu’s birth, but his role in promoting political reform and the subsequent brutal suppression of the 1989 demonstrations has given the event a sharpened political edge.
The party’s official verdict on the events of June 4 1989 – that it was correct to order the brutal suppression of what it judged to be counter-revolutionary “political turmoil” – has tainted Hu within official circles and ensured discussion of his leadership has been minimised.
Today’s ceremony, backed by Hu Jintao, the president and party secretary (who is not related to Hu Yaobang), has caused divisions within the top leadership, prompting it to be scaled back from an initial plan for a larger, more ambitious event.
“Because of some dissension over the size the ceremony has been cut,” a retired senior official and former colleague of Hu said yesterday.
Hu Jintao, originally slated to attend the event, will now be absent, fortuitously busy with affairs of state at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in South Korea.
The events of June 4 1989, and any suggestion the official ruling on them could be modified or even overturned, remain a hypersensitive issue within the party. A whiff of dissension from the official verdict is enough to stir the scrutiny of state security, whose agents have been deployed in recent weeks to keep watch on activists and sympathisers.
State security has detained and deported a number of Hong Kong journalists who tried to interview Hu’s former colleagues and have also blocked access to their residences.
Two prominent and outspoken party elders, Li Rui, a former secretary to Mao Zedong, and Zhu Houze, Hu’s former propaganda chief, have both been excluded from the ceremony.
“Anybody who is qualified to be invited has not been,” said a retired official, who asked not to be named.
Hu Jintao’s sanctioning of a ceremony to mark Hu’s birth date initially sparked surprise, as the president has overseen a tightening of control of the media and intellectuals since coming to power two years ago.
The commemoration may help soften Hu Jintao’s austere image but it is more likely designed at bolstering his support internally by appealing to the many members who still revere the late leader.
“Yaobang was harshly treated, especially as he did a lot of good work in rehabilitating people after the Cultural Revolution, including many of the relatives and friends of today’s top leaders,” said the retired official.
Hu was party secretary for seven years until 1987, before he was deposed on charges he was too soft on a series of student demonstrations that broke out that year. Zhang Zuhua, a former colleague, said many members not only respected the late leader, “they worshipped him”.
“He was a great humanitarian,” said Mr Zhang in an interview. “By holding this ceremony, today’s leaders don’t need to spend any money, but they can win great support from some people in the Communist Youth League [Hu’s one time power base] and intellectuals.”
Jiang Zemin, the former president, also attempted to harvest the backing of Hu’s supporters, according to a recent biography, by visiting his home town in 1995, but he never honoured Hu with a ceremony in the capital.
A number of members of the Politburo, including Wen Jiabao, the premier, are expected to attend the ceremony, although the guest list has not been officially released. The keynote speech is due to be made by Zeng Qinghong, the nations’s fifth-ranked leader.
