Liang Boqi, wife of China's purged ex-leader Zhao Ziyang, dies at 95
The widow of Zhao Ziyang, the late Communist Party chief removed from office for opposing the military crackdown against student democracy protestors in 1989, has died.
Liang Boqi
1918-2013
The widow of Zhao Ziyang, the late Communist Party chief removed from office for opposing the military crackdown against student democracy protestors in 1989, has died.
Liang Boqi, 95, died "peacefully" on Wednesday evening at Beijing Hospital, her family said in a text message sent to friends and relatives yesterday morning.
Liang's husband, Zhao, was a former general secretary of the party who was stripped of power in 1989 before troops moved in against protesters in Tiananmen Square.
She endured house arrest in Beijing with Zhao, where he spent the last 15 years of his life. He died in January 2005, aged 85.
Liang had suffered from dementia and had only limited eyesight because of cataracts, said a long-time friend of the family who declined to be named.
She was still unaware of her husband's death at the time of her own passing, the family friend said. Her children had not told her before because of her dementia. "She could not recognise people," the source said.