Liberal Chinese leader Hu Yaobang rises from the past with official statue in hometown
- Hu’s death was one of the sparks for the Tiananmen Square protests; now the Communist Party is burnishing his reformist image
A statue of reformist Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang has been officially unveiled in his hometown in southern China, almost three decades after his death helped ignite protests in Tiananmen Square.
Friends and family were at the unveiling in Liuyang, Hunan province, on Sunday, an event that was initially only covered by local news outlets but was soon picked up by online media, including liberal discussion groups.
Hu, who held the party’s top office and steered the country through political and economic reform in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, was sidelined in 1987 for tolerating “bourgeois liberalisation”.
Regarded by many as a liberal, he helped rehabilitate party and government officials persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.
He is also known for initiating public discussion in 1977 over ending the “blind worship” of Mao Zedong and spearheading the country’s push towards a market economy in the 1980s.
The statue of the popular leader was approved by the party’s Central Committee and the State Council, the country’s cabinet, a move observers said could be an attempt to put the spotlight on party unity ahead of the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up.
