Cao Siyuan, outspoken reformist who sought peaceful end to Tiananmen protests, dies at 68

Cao Siyuan, the drafter of the mainland's first bankruptcy law who was also accused of being a "black hand" of the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement, died early yesterday in Beijing, his wife said. He was 68.

Cao, who had cancer, had suffered chest pains for some time and was admitted to hospital on November 16, where he later developed breathing difficulties, his wife Chen Binbin said. He died at about 6.30am yesterday from lung and heart failure.

"It was all very sudden," she said. "He had not completed his mission."

A researcher into economic and political reform policies in the 1980s, Cao was nicknamed "Bankruptcy Cao" for having pioneered the mainland's first bankruptcy law.

During the Tiananmen movement in 1989, Cao was one of the intellectuals approached by the government to persuade students to leave the square but was later accused of being a "black hand" who masterminded the movement. He was arrested on the eve of the crackdown and detained for nearly a year.

Cao insisted that the crackdown could be avoided if the National People's Congress held an emergency session to discuss how to end the stand-off peacefully. He said he got signatures from lawmakers to support the move but it failed to stop the crackdown.