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Hu Yaobang
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A low-key memorial for Hu Yaobang was held in Gongqingcheng, Jiangxi province on Monday. Photo: Weibo

Communist Party reformer Hu Yaobang remembered in low-key ceremony

  • No official events held to mark 30th anniversary of his death, which sparked the 1989 pro-democracy movement and subsequent military crackdown
  • More than 300 people paid their respects at a memorial in Jiangxi province
Hu Yaobang
More than 300 people gathered in a city in eastern China on Monday to pay their respects to Hu Yaobang, the former Communist Party leader whose life, and death 30 years ago, transformed the nation.

While there were no official commemorative events for the icon of political reform, whose death sparked the 1989 pro-democracy movement that ended in a military crackdown, the anniversary was marked in a memorial in Gongqingcheng, Jiangxi province.

Well-known scholar Yang Tuan, one of Hu’s supporters who attended the memorial, posted several photos of the ceremony on social media, saying a number of Hu’s relatives and former colleagues attended the event that she described as “brief, low-key, solemn and compassionate”.

“There were no restrictions [imposed by the authorities],” Yang wrote in her message. “Many people have come to pay their respects and the stream of people did not stop even after the event was over.”

Hu Yaobang’s youngest son, Hu Dehua, said the family would travel to his father’s hometown after the event. Photo: Simon Song

While party leaders organised activities to mark the centenary of Hu’s birth in 2015, authorities have maintained tight control over the anniversary of his death since 1989, not wanting to send the signal that the leadership had altered its view that the 1989 movement was a rebellion.

Hu’s youngest son, Hu Dehua, who was at the memorial in Gongqingcheng, said the family would travel to his father’s hometown of Liuyang in Hunan province after the event, but he declined to comment further.

According to another relative, a cultural performance was held on Monday night in Liuyang and the family would hold a private gathering there on Tuesday.

A poetry recital was part of a performance held in remembrance of Hu Yaobang in his hometown Liuyang on Monday night. Photo: Weibo

A historian who lives in Liuyang and is familiar with the anniversary activities said although they were low-key and unofficial, it was still remarkable that they were able to be held at all.

“They may not be official, but that’s not the point,” the historian said. “What’s important is that some of Hu’s ideals – democracy, freedom and tolerance of dissenting views – are remembered and discussed, although that’s still not enough.”

Because of the sensitivity around his death, which triggered an outpouring of public grief, Hu Yaobang was not buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing where many top party leaders have been laid to rest.

Instead, Gongqingcheng, a city far from the capital that he founded in 1955, was chosen as his final resting place.

(From left) Then premier Zhao Ziyang, Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang during a meeting in 1984. Hu was sidelined three years later when he lost Deng’s trust. Photo: AP

Hu was considered a reformist leader for his liberal views. He was hand-picked by paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s to lead the country’s reforms, but was sidelined in 1987 when he lost the strongman’s trust.

On Friday, a group of Hu’s former colleagues also held a gathering at his old home in Beijing to mark the 30th anniversary of his death.

But there were few other voices calling to remember Hu in mainland China, amid tight control to prevent any public discussion about the former party boss, who was credited with healing wounds after the decade of chaos and upheaval during the Cultural Revolution.

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