WP: China Plans Modest Memorial For Zhao: Party Vets Urged State Funeral

[DeepModem Mom]

China Plans Modest Memorial For Zhao
Party Veterans Had Urged State Funeral

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 21, 2005; Page A10


BEIJING, Jan. 20 -- The Chinese government said Thursday it would hold a scaled-down funeral service for Zhao Ziyang, easing its efforts to restrict public mourning for the deposed Communist Party chief after criticism from party elders and others.

But it refrained from setting a date or releasing any details, and continued to prohibit state television and radio from reporting Zhao's death. Family members said they were still negotiating with the authorities about what, if any, public honors would be granted the former prime minister and party general secretary.

The matter is sensitive because Zhao was purged for opposing the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, and the government is worried that a memorial service for him might stir memories of the massacre and set off protests. He died Monday at 85 after spending 15 years under house arrest.

In its first comments on memorial plans, the government issued a brief statement saying the country had been simplifying state funerals for years and now held "only activities to bid farewell to remains."...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24774-2005Jan20.html

[David__77]

1. There will be no public funeral.

They cannot have one. They came quite close to arrested and putting Zhao on trial for fomenting "counterrevolutionary rebellion" in 1989, but decided against it, wisely, since it contradicts the new policy of "socialist legality." Zhao was flawed, from the current leadership's perspective, but not criminally negligent, for his Gorbachev-like naivety.

I personally believe Zhao was naive, believing that opening the gates to Western-style "democracy" would help China. I do not think this is the case. Another route of increasing liberty is called for, within the constraints of maintaining the sovereignty of China, which Russia lost in its mad drive to privatize and sell the country to Western interests.