China’s current leaders played a prominent role in the secrecy-shrouded 1990 burial of reformist Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang, whose death in 1989 sparked the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests.
Video footage obtained by Reuters of the events 15 years ago show a grim-looking Wen Jiabao, then 48 and now China’s premier, wearing a cream trench coat and a black armband at the interment.
The footage has never been broadcast on Chinese television for a critical reason — Hu’s death on April 15, 1989, sparked pro-democracy protests centred on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and officials feared airing it could lead to more turmoil.
China is now preparing to end the long silence.
See also “Hu Yaobang’s birthday to be commemorated” from China Daily.
