Hu Yaobang became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of CCP in 1982, the highest ranking member of the party. As a comrade working under Deng since the 1930s, Hu’s political ups and downs mirrored Deng’s turbulent political career. With the end of the Cultural Revolution and Deng’s status as the Paramount Leader, Hu was promoted to Party Secretary General in 1980. While Hu executed many of Deng’s reforms after the Cultural Revolution, he was not welcomed by the conservative old guards. Hu however was much more reform minded than Deng, and was in favour of democratic reforms. In 1986 the old guards won over Deng to their side to impose strict party discipline against reforms. Hu’s advocacy of decreasing military spending as well
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Hu Yaobang passed away on April 15th, 1989, and the CCP held a grand funeral for him that was televised publically. Students began to gather in Tiananmen Square initially to mourn for him and to request official reversal of Hu’s legacy where he was forced to admit his mistakes; but discussions and requests soon became revolved around general political questions such as democratic reforms and transparency. From mid April up to June 4th, the situation escalated through a series of key events. The protests quickly became a national phenomenon in the beginning, with protests and even riots occurring in a number of cities including Xi’an and Changsha in April 22nd. Zhao Ziyang, who assumed the position of General Secretary after Hu’s resignation, left for a scheduled visit to North Korea on April 23rd and thus Premier Li Peng was left in charge as the acting executive authority. Compared with Hu and Zhao, Li Peng was a conservative who did not look favorably upon the reforms. Thus in Zhao’s absence, Li Peng consulted with Deng and the Politburo Standing Committee to take a clear-cut stand against disturbances, which was communicated to the public through a front page editorial by the People’s Daily – the CCP’s mouthpiece. The editorial labelled the protestors to be anti-CCP factions masquerading to be reform movements with much more sinister motives; this further fueled the
Hu Yaobang passed away on April 15th, 1989, and the CCP held a grand funeral for him that was televised publically. Students began to gather in Tiananmen Square initially to mourn for him and to request official reversal of Hu’s legacy where he was forced to admit his mistakes; but discussions and requests soon became revolved around general political questions such as democratic reforms and transparency. From mid April up to June 4th, the situation escalated through a series of key events. The protests quickly became a national phenomenon in the beginning, with protests and even riots occurring in a number of cities including Xi’an and Changsha in April 22nd. Zhao Ziyang, who assumed the position of General Secretary after Hu’s resignation, left for a scheduled visit to North Korea on April 23rd and thus Premier Li Peng was left in charge as the acting executive authority. Compared with Hu and Zhao, Li Peng was a conservative who did not look favorably upon the reforms. Thus in Zhao’s absence, Li Peng consulted with Deng and the Politburo Standing Committee to take a clear-cut stand against disturbances, which was communicated to the public through a front page editorial by the People’s Daily – the CCP’s mouthpiece. The editorial labelled the protestors to be anti-CCP factions masquerading to be reform movements with much more sinister motives; this further fueled the