2013-10-18

 

Well-wishers hold up a banner in support of Zhao Ziyang at his family home in Beijing, Oct. 17, 2013.

Photo courtesy of Hu Jia

 

 

Dozens of activists and ordinary Chinese have marked the birthday of a late, revered former premier whose ouster came amid a bloody military crackdown on the student-led pro-democracy movement of 1989 in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

 

Holding up banners calling for his posthumous rehabilitation, they gathered this week at the Beijing residence of Zhao Ziyang, a liberal-minded and well-loved leader who rose to the top of the ruling Chinese Communist Party at the 13th Party Congress in 1987, his relatives and participants said.

 

"Quite a lot of people came; more than in previous years, I thought," Wang Zhihua, Zhao's son-in-law, told RFA's Cantonese Service. "I hadn't expected there to be so many people, though it's hard to say exactly how many [came]."

 

The well-wishers converged on the Zhao family home at No. 6 Fuqiang Alley in Beijing, to mark the 94th anniversary of his birth on Thursday, Wang said.

 

"It was only his birthday today, but a lot of people remembered. Of course, we were very moved by this."

 

Photos supplied by those who visited the Zhao residence showed groups of people holding up banners calling on the government to "rehabilitate Mr. Zhao Ziyang," while others bore a saying that was popular during his time in office: "If you want to eat grain, go to [Zhao] Ziyang."

 

Others showed mourners signing a condolence book using traditional Chinese calligraphy.

 

Mourned by activists

 

Zhao is widely mourned among political and civil rights activists in China and overseas, as well as by China's army of petitioners, many of whom have spent years pursuing complaints against the government, often to no avail.

 

His home was closely watched by plainclothes detectives and state security police on Thursday, according to rights activist Hu Jia, who also visited Fuqiang Alley.

 

"There were eight plainclothes police stationed at the entrance to the alleyway," Hu said. "The state security police were definitely there too, but they ... were all in their vehicles."

 

"You could just about make out a guy in the back seat with a camcorder. There were three or four vehicles there with police registration plates," he said.

 

Hu said he had seen around 100 people at the Zhao residence while he was there.

 

"I think they were regular folk, as well as a considerable contingent of petitioners, some of whom displayed details of injustices they had suffered."

 

"There were also some of Zhao's friends and relatives," he said.

 

Hope for reform

 

Petitioner Jiang Jiawen, who recently served a six-month sentence in labor camp for "stirring up trouble," said the visitors had deliberately staggered their visits so as to avoid inconveniencing Zhao's family.

 

"A lot of people came [in groups] throughout the day, just to pay their respects briefly ... because their home is a small courtyard house," Jiang said.

 

"We spoke briefly with ... Zhao Ziyang's son, Zhao Erjun," she said. "Everyone talked about how they were feeling."

 

She said many petitioners had hoped that incoming president Xi Jinping, who launched an anti-corruption campaign soon after taking power last November, would initiate genuine reform.

 

"There has been no change at all, only renewed crackdowns," Jiang said. "Everyone had high hopes when Xi came to power, but they have all slipped away between our fingers, like water in a basket."

"The greater the hope, the greater the despair," she said. "If China's system doesn't change or reform, it makes no difference who's in power."

 

Du Qingyan, a petitioner from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, said Zhao was a leader who had tried to save China from widespread injustices and rampant official corruption.

 

"He shed tears for the students on June 4, 1989 ... He was trying to save China from injustice," said Du, who unfurled a banner near the Yongdingmen gate in the south of Beijing alongside a group of petitioners from across China, calling on the government to rehabilitate Zhao, whose name has been expunged from official documents and history textbooks.

 

Reported by Grace Kei Lai-see for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Jiang Pei for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

 

 

 

 

 

2013-10-18

 

Well-wishers hold up a banner in support of Zhao Ziyang at his family home in Beijing, Oct. 17, 2013.

Photo courtesy of Hu Jia

 

 

Dozens of activists and ordinary Chinese have marked the birthday of a late, revered former premier whose ouster came amid a bloody military crackdown on the student-led pro-democracy movement of 1989 in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

 

Holding up banners calling for his posthumous rehabilitation, they gathered this week at the Beijing residence of Zhao Ziyang, a liberal-minded and well-loved leader who rose to the top of the ruling Chinese Communist Party at the 13th Party Congress in 1987, his relatives and participants said.

 

"Quite a lot of people came; more than in previous years, I thought," Wang Zhihua, Zhao's son-in-law, told RFA's Cantonese Service. "I hadn't expected there to be so many people, though it's hard to say exactly how many [came]."

 

The well-wishers converged on the Zhao family home at No. 6 Fuqiang Alley in Beijing, to mark the 94th anniversary of his birth on Thursday, Wang said.

 

"It was only his birthday today, but a lot of people remembered. Of course, we were very moved by this."

 

Photos supplied by those who visited the Zhao residence showed groups of people holding up banners calling on the government to "rehabilitate Mr. Zhao Ziyang," while others bore a saying that was popular during his time in office: "If you want to eat grain, go to [Zhao] Ziyang."

 

Others showed mourners signing a condolence book using traditional Chinese calligraphy.

 

Mourned by activists

 

Zhao is widely mourned among political and civil rights activists in China and overseas, as well as by China's army of petitioners, many of whom have spent years pursuing complaints against the government, often to no avail.

 

His home was closely watched by plainclothes detectives and state security police on Thursday, according to rights activist Hu Jia, who also visited Fuqiang Alley.

 

"There were eight plainclothes police stationed at the entrance to the alleyway," Hu said. "The state security police were definitely there too, but they ... were all in their vehicles."

 

"You could just about make out a guy in the back seat with a camcorder. There were three or four vehicles there with police registration plates," he said.

 

Hu said he had seen around 100 people at the Zhao residence while he was there.

 

"I think they were regular folk, as well as a considerable contingent of petitioners, some of whom displayed details of injustices they had suffered."

 

"There were also some of Zhao's friends and relatives," he said.

 

Hope for reform

 

Petitioner Jiang Jiawen, who recently served a six-month sentence in labor camp for "stirring up trouble," said the visitors had deliberately staggered their visits so as to avoid inconveniencing Zhao's family.

 

"A lot of people came [in groups] throughout the day, just to pay their respects briefly ... because their home is a small courtyard house," Jiang said.

 

"We spoke briefly with ... Zhao Ziyang's son, Zhao Erjun," she said. "Everyone talked about how they were feeling."

 

She said many petitioners had hoped that incoming president Xi Jinping, who launched an anti-corruption campaign soon after taking power last November, would initiate genuine reform.

 

"There has been no change at all, only renewed crackdowns," Jiang said. "Everyone had high hopes when Xi came to power, but they have all slipped away between our fingers, like water in a basket."

"The greater the hope, the greater the despair," she said. "If China's system doesn't change or reform, it makes no difference who's in power."

 

Du Qingyan, a petitioner from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, said Zhao was a leader who had tried to save China from widespread injustices and rampant official corruption.

 

"He shed tears for the students on June 4, 1989 ... He was trying to save China from injustice," said Du, who unfurled a banner near the Yongdingmen gate in the south of Beijing alongside a group of petitioners from across China, calling on the government to rehabilitate Zhao, whose name has been expunged from official documents and history textbooks.

 

Reported by Grace Kei Lai-see for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Jiang Pei for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.