BEIJING is poised to restore the Chinese Communist Party membership of a noted liberal intellectual, former People's Daily chief editor Hu Jiwei.
A political source in Beijing said Mr Hu was told last week the newspaper's party cell would be allowed to reinstate his membership after the Lunar New Year.
His membership was suspended in 1990 after accusations he had supported the 1989 pro-democracy movement which ended in the bloody June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
The reformist intellectual, a protege of the late party chief Hu Yaobang, was also relieved of his membership in the National People's Congress soon after the crackdown.
He was heavily criticised in the official media after the 1989 incident.
The source said the favour being given to Hu Jiwei, who advocated radical reforms for the media in the late 1980s, could be a sign that the administration of President Jiang Zemin was trying to reconcile with the country's liberal intelligentsia.
