Zhao Ziyang
Zhào Zǐyáng (Chinese赵紫阳/赵紫阳; * October 17, 1919; † January 17, 2005 in Beijing) was a politician of the People's Republic of China. He was Premier of the People 's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987 and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 until 1989.
Life and career
Zhao was born the son of a wealthy landowner in the province of Henan. In 1932 he joined the Communist Youth Association and worked for the Communist Party during the Sino-Japanese War in the underground. In the 1950s he served in the top leadership of the party in the province of Guangdong, and in the 1960s he was promoted to party secretary in the province.
Because he supported the reforms of Liu Shaoqi, he was replaced during the Cultural Revolution as party leader. He had to march with a Büßermütze through the streets of the city of Guangzhou and was ordered in 1971 to work in Inner Mongolia.
In 1973 he was rehabilitated by the then Prime Minister Zhou Enlai and sent in the largest province of China, Sichuan. There he was in 1975 the first party secretary and led market-oriented reforms in the country, which led to a rapid increase in production. Therefore, it was at that time in Sichuan proverb yào Chi mǐ, zhǎo Wan lǐ; yào Chi Liang, zhǎo Zǐyáng (要吃 米,找 万里; .要 吃粮,找 紫阳), which is a pun on the name of Zhao Ziyang translated as eat Want rice, seeking Wan Li; do you want to eat cereal, seeking Zhao Ziyang means ( Zhao is the surname of Zhao Ziyang; zhǎo means " search" or "find" ). At the same time, Zhao was a member of the Party Committee of the Communist Party. From 1977 he was a member of the Politburo, a few years later he became deputy prime minister.
After he had held office for six months as Deputy Prime Minister, he was appointed Prime Minister in 1980. In January 1987, he moved to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, his successor as prime minister Li Peng.
As General Secretary Zhao stood for an open foreign policy and for the implementation of economic reforms. So called Zhao reforms the biggest test for socialism. He was of the opinion that economic progress can be successful only in accordance with democratization. Already in 1986, he called for the first senior leader of the Communist Party to political changes, he introduced a system of several candidates for the election of village representatives and wanted to extend this concept to the level of the Central Committee. Similarly, progressive for his time were his economic reforms. He developed the " theory of the passers- phase ", in which he drew the way for the reform of the socialist system, its implementation made possible the economic boom in which China is today. For the economic reforms Zhao, however, was also criticized because they triggered inflation.
In the 1980s, he was criticized as a revisionist of Marxism. He tried to make the government more transparent and promoted a political dialogue, which incorporated the ordinary citizens in the political process. This made him popular among the people.
During the events surrounding the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, Zhao said to the protesting students in order to convince them to abandon their protests before it was too late. At the same time the other leaders of the Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping, Yang Shangkun, Li Peng, Hu Qili prepared the declaration of martial law to quell the protests. What Zhao was motivated to his attitude towards the protests, will be discussed today. Some say after him, that he hoped a conciliatory gesture towards the protesters would give him in the fight against the hardliners within the party more weight.
After the crackdown on protests, a struggle for power broke out in the Zhao had to give up all his posts and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life because of his sympathy for the protesting students.
Zhao Ziyang 's death in January 2005 led to the government to fears of new unrest. In the history of the People's Republic of mourning rallies for deceased popular politicians had repeatedly led to demonstrations, such as the death of Hu Yaobang in 1989, the student protests at Tiananmen Square, which was followed by the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or even before the Tiananmen incident after the death of Zhou Enlai in 1976. 's why the government had the party in April, after Zhao had suffered a pulmonary infarction, on alert.
There are suspicions that research on Zhao Ziyang led to the arrest of dissident Ching Cheong.
2009 Prisoner of State was published. The book is based on 30 audio cassettes that Zhao has recorded between 1999 and 2000 at home. He expects it from with Li Peng, Li Xiannian, Yao Yilin, Deng Liqun, Hu and Wang Zhen Qiaomu. The former disaster was preventable, he writes.
Publications
- Report of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party at the 13th Party Congress. ( in: 13 Congress of the Communist Party of China Dietz -Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-320-01227-4. . )