Hu Yaobang

Hu Yaobang (Chinese: 胡耀邦; pinyin: Hú Yàobāng; 20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a Chinese politician who was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1987, first as Chairman from 1981 to 1982, then as General Secretary from 1982 to 1987. After the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Hu rose to prominence as a close ally of Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader of China at the time.

Hu joined the CCP in the 1930s. During the Cultural Revolution, he was purged, recalled, and purged again by Mao Zedong. After Deng Xiaoping rose to power, following the death of Mao Zedong, Hu played an important role in the "Boluan Fanzheng" program. Throughout the 1980s, he pursued a series of economic and political reforms under the supervision of Deng. Meanwhile, Hu's political and economic reforms also made him the enemy of several powerful Party elders, who opposed free market reforms and his reforms of China's government. When widespread student protests occurred across China in December 1986 and January 1987, Hu's political opponents blamed him for the disruptions and convinced Deng Xiaoping that Hu's tolerance on "bourgeois liberalization" had instigated the protests. Hu was forced to resign as the general secretary of CCP in early 1987, but was allowed to retain his membership in the Politburo.

Hu's position as the CCP's general secretary was succeeded by his close ally Zhao Ziyang, who carried on many of Hu's economic and political reforms. A day after Hu's death in April 1989, a small-scale unofficial commemoration took place in Beijing, during which people demanded that the Chinese government reassesses and recognizes Hu's legacy; a week later, the day before Hu's funeral, some 100,000 students marched on Tiananmen Square, eventually leading to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in June. Following the 1989 protests, the Chinese government censored the details of Hu's life within mainland China, but later in 2005 the government officially rehabilitated Hu's image and lifted its censorships, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Hu's birth. Hu was buried in Gongqingcheng in Jiangxi.