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Denied Recognition; Beijing refuses state funeral for Zhao Ziyang
China’s ruling cabinet, the state council, also announced this week that independent journalists would not be permitted to attend Zhao’s funeral, and that only Xinhua, China’s state run media group, would be permitted to provide press coverage.
Zhao’s supporters and family have issued an unknown number of tickets to those seeking to attend his funeral and a telephone enquires line, that was set up to provide information about his funeral, was also taking details of those wishing to attend, but it is likely that many of those with tickets will be turned away from the actual event by authorities wishing to minimize its profile.
Guards remain at Zhao’s residence even after his death, and have now been instructed to turn visitors, seeking to show respect and condolence, away.
During the formal announcement of Zhao’s death, Beijing released only a short statement regarding his long period of ill health and eventual cause of death. The official report included no political biographical details and no acknowledgement of the part that Zhao’s reforms played in China’s current period of high economic growth. It was also limited to printed statements, with no announcements being immediately made on state run television or radio.
To date, reaction over Zhao’s death has been muted because of a low level of awareness, particularly among students and other young people, about the former party head and the ideas that he advocated, despite their increasing relevance to modern China.
Zhao’s ideal have largely been erased from politics and history books in China, and school text books are only permitted to print ‘government approves’ information about the former party head.
After his ousting, Chinese authorities took careful steps to erase Zhao from public memory so as to limit the spread of his pro reform agenda. The amount of information available to the Chinese people about Zhao, and his period of office, is limited and many official accounts have either been removed from public view or manipulated to agree with official government lines.
It is believed that the Chinese government’s treatment of Zhao, and its removal of him from texts, is because it feared that Zhao could provide a figurehead for reformers, and that publicity about Zhao’s reforms, and his eventual death, could trigger popular unrest.
Many China watchers agree that Zhao’s pro reform agenda, which included increasing freedom of speech and introducing structured capitalist economic reforms to increase productivity, are a threat to the authority of the current Chinese government, and that any state acknowledgement of Zhao could not only be seen as a recognition of his policies, but could also provide a rallying marker for pro reform groups.
Do you think Zhao left a legacy that will bear fruit eventually or will he
have been a voice stifled forever?
Visit me @ http://www.journalscape.com/rhubarb/
I agree that Zhao should recieve the credit he deserves from the Chinese
government. I was happy to see that the death sentence of Tenzin Rinpoche
was commuted to life. I think I speak for the rest of us Tibetan Buddhists
when I thank everyone globally that supported Tenzin and pressured the
Chinese government to not execute yet another political prisoner.
Chris Chapman
Sarah
To many, Zhao’s legacy is clear. He championed the opening up of China and the decentralization of Chinese manufacturing and sales. China’s current economic strength is partly due to the reforms put into practice by Zhao, or by ideals that he held that were later put into practice.
Without Zhao, China might still be a closed country, and certainly wouldn’t be the major manufacturer and exporter that it is today.
I think that it is inevitable that China will open up and that
it will become a US/EU like country, but not under its current government.
Zhao wanted the governemnt to let go of the people as well as intustry and comerce, but the current government is tightening its grip on the people.
It is going to take China a long time, and too many people have already been convinced that Zhao wasn't an important figure.
Change will come and Zhao's legacy will be seen, but not today, and not necessarily with Zhao's name attatched
Chris
While I don’t support the death penalty for non capital crimes, and welcome a lessening of such a term, this is not a post about Tibet or an activist site. Please keep on topic.
It is on point. ACB, the two are linked. Please do the
research.
Chris [chrisnpenny@yahoo.com]
Chris
It doesn't have a strong enough relationship to the article for me to include it, I'm only dealing with Zhao and his banishment from public life.
Zhao has links to many people but I would like to keep him the center of any discussions and not bring in other people. I'm not even considering links between him and Hu strong enough to include here.
Tibet is a worthy issue, but I don't really know enough about it or what is going on between it and the Chinese Government to say anything so I'm not going to.
I also don't want to attract too many actavists or campaigners for a particular cause as they tend to offend each other and start comment wars. I've already had to kill several threads because they got out of hand. I am not running a discussion group, only a news site.
Feel free to comment on the articles that I have written about Tibet though, there are one or two and you can access them through the catagories menu at the top of the page. Don't expect too much though, as I said, I really don't know anything about this issue.
I would like to say that Zhao is the only Chinese "leader" in history who
would prefer "people" over his own political career and power. I am not
sure what it meant by "long" in ACB's answer to Sarah, but the tightening
in politics should be seen as the last staw of the Party. The estimated
"peaceful" time was said to be 10 years by many Chinese. And personally, I
don't think 10 years is too long.
rachellyo
rachellyo
Hi, ACB is the name of the website Admin, me.
Zhao was one of the few leaders who wanted to improve the lot of the Chinese people, even if it meant that the government had to relinquish control. Much of what we see in China now is a result of a government that refuses to relinquish control.
Zhao wanted to follow the original plan of communism, his fellow leader only wanted to follow it as far as it took for them to get into absolute power, then they stopped and sat tight.
By a long time, I meant that there is not even a remote chance that the Chinese governement will willing open up freedom of speech and expression, or the economy any time soon, because a China with these things is a China without its current government. It will take at least an entire generation for the governemnt to relax significantly, and then another generation before the people are sure enough about their new freedoms to use them fully. People still remember that the person who sticks his head above ground in China is at risk of getting bashed, and even when that risk is gone, nobody will want ot be the first person to look out and make sure it's gone.
A long time in China will be 10 or 20 years to get the ball rolling and clear out the last vertigaes of the revolution, and another 10 to 20 years before peoples attitudes and mentalities adapt. That is if things don't take a step backwards again like they did after Zhao was ousted.
The young will push the boat out, but the old won't. They will favor stability over reform and they will believe what the government is telling them now about 'unhealthy ideas' and how changing means westernizing and loosing their identities.