The Foreign Service Journal, May 2005

Conference, led a group of officials to attend the funeral. But the communist leadership dug in its heels on the evaluation, and the short Xinhua news release stated only that Zhao had “assumed important leading posts on the CCP Central Committee and for the state and made important contributions to the party’s and people’s caus- es” — without stating what those positions or contribu- tions were. It also repeated the party’s judgment that Zhao had made “serious mistakes” in 1989, when he was ousted from power. Contrast that grudging statement with the effusive praise given to Zhao’s predecessor as general secretary, Hu Yaobang, upon his death in 1989. Even though Hu had also been stripped of power (in January 1987), he was eulogized as a “long-tested fighter for communism, a great proletarian revolutionary, a great statesman, a prominent political commissar of the people’s army, and an outstanding leader who held important posts in the party for many years.” Even given the CCP’s efforts to downgrade the scale of such funerals, the muted assess- ment of Zhao stands out. Zhao Ziyang was last seen in public in the early hours of May 19, 1989, telling student demonstrators in Tianan- men Square to protect themselves. He spent the last 16 years of his life under a type of house arrest that allowed him some visitors, to make some trips around the coun- try and to play golf, but did not allow him to talk with reporters, make public appearances or go to places where he might attract a crowd. By all accounts, he lived in his home only a block off of the busy shopping street of Wangfujing in quiet dignity, not regretting the decisions that he had made that ended his official career. For years, people had speculated that his passing would trigger the sort of public mourning that followed his predecessor’s death, which set off the massive student demonstrations that ultimately brought down Zhao. It did not, both because of concerted efforts by the CCP and because prosperity and social stability now loom larg- er in people’s minds than the example of a single leader who preferred giving up power to firing on unarmed civilians. As bitter memories of Tiananmen Square faded, so, too, did public awareness of his contributions. Many younger people either had never heard of the for- mer party leader or were unclear what had happened in May-June 1989. Even many older people drew the con- clusion that Tiananmen showed that reform could only be done incrementally. Consequently, the 2,000 or so mourners who were finally allowed to pay their final respects to Zhao Ziyang on Jan. 29, 2005 (in a carefully monitored process in which attendees had to pick up passes at a hotel desk), did so peacefully, for the most part, though the police did rough up a few people. But the CCP’s micro-manage- ment of the funeral arrangements makes clear that for many Chinese, the late leader is only buried — and far from dead. Memories of Tiananmen Ironically, as Zhao neared death, his words appeared in a new book published in Hong Kong in November 2004. Written by senior Xinhua correspondent Yang Jisheng, Political Struggles in the Age of China’s Reforms (Zhongguo gaige niandai zhengzhi douzheng, Excellent Culture Press) appends three interviews conducted with Zhao Ziyang in 1995, 1996 and 2000. Although by no means as extensive as Khrushchev Remembers , this is surely the first time a CCP leader has chosen to leave his own version of events for future historians (though Zhang Guotao, an early Chinese communist leader, did write a long memoir after he defected to the Kuomintang). These interviews not only challenge the party’s judgment on Tiananmen, but they give many tantalizing hints of life at the top of the CCP and the personalities of party leaders. Given that they are recorded by one of China’s pre- mier correspondents and that they are verbatim records of Zhao’s words, the interviews’ provenance seems indis- putable. It is unlikely that the sort of controversy that has dogged the publication of The Tiananmen Papers (Zhang Liang compiler, Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link, eds., Public Affairs, 2001) will accompany these interviews. They are thus required reading for all students of con- temporary China. Although Zhao is clearly telling his story for history, the tone is remarkably informal and unself-conscious. The book includes long sections that deal with his rela- tions with Hu Yaobang, as well as vignettes that give insights into the personality of “Paramount Leader” F O C U S 48 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 5 Joseph Fewsmith is professor of international relations and political science at Boston University. He is the author, most recently, of China since Tiananmen (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and Elite Politics in China (ME Sharpe, 2001).