Chinese President Xi Jinping pays tribute at centenary of late reformist leader Hu Yaobang
Xi gives speech at event honouring purged liberal party chief, whose 1989 death triggered widespread mourning that transformed into the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement
China marked the centenary of the birth of late reformist leader Hu Yaobang on Friday with an unusually high-profile official ceremony attended by the Communist Party’s seven most powerful men, including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang .
Hu, a liberal leader who steered China’s political and economic reform in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, was purged in 1987 for tolerating “bourgeois liberalisation”. The popular leader’s death in 1989 sparked the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement and his name remained taboo in state media for years.
At yesterday’s ceremony, Xi paid tribute to the late party chief, calling him “a time-tested loyal Communist fighter and a great proletarian revolutionist”, according to CCTV. The assessment was the same as that in his official obituary and one in a 2005 ceremony at the 90th anniversary of Hu’s birth.
Xi said the party was commemorating Hu for his “firm belief, idealism and his high morals”, stressing that party members must also have a strong and unshakable belief in communism and stick to party discipline, the state broadcaster reported.
Read more: The man who questioned Mao: Hu Yaobang’s colleagues look back
The atmosphere at the ceremony held at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People was “very, very moving”, said a source close to the family, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The attendance by Xi and the rest of the six members of the Politburo Standing Committee – the country’s highest decision-making body – indicated the importance attached to the event by the party. Other remembrance activities will take place in Hu’s hometown in Liuyang , Hunan province, on Monday.
