From Asia Times Online: “The death of a political figure, particularly an acknowledged hero, often provides propagandists enormous opportunities. Not so in the case of disgraced former premier and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Zhao Ziyang, who had initiated political and economic reforms – but supported the pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square – and was revered by many. Because of Tiananmen he was taboo in life and remains so in death. In his home country his passing has been accorded but a few lines, empty words.
The propaganda authorities in strict control of domestic news media in China were all a-dither when Zhao, the ousted CCP chief who was venerated by a great number of democratic sympathizers and mavericks, breathed his last in Beijing on Monday at age 85. He was ousted, reviled and made a non-person under house arrest because of his support for the peaceful Tiananmen pro-democracy protesters, later labeled ‘counterrevolutionary rioters’. Hundreds, or maybe thousands, were killed or jailed in the bloody crackdown against them on June 4, 1989. ”
