China's Zhao Ziyang in ill health--source
2004-04-05

Chinese politician Zhao Ziyang: at his residence in Beijing (1999).

People Zhao Ziyang Jiang Zemin Event Tiananmen Massacre Profession Politician

BEIJING - Zhao Ziyang, toppled as China's Communist Party chief for opposing the army crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests, is in ill health after a bout of pneumonia, alarming the country's leaders, a Chinese source said on Monday.

Zhao, 84, has been under house arrest for almost 15 years, but current leaders are nervous about his residual influence, fearing the death of modern China's icon of reform and democracy could spark protests.

June 4 marks the 15th anniversary of the bloody military crackdown on the protests in which hundreds, possibly thousands, died.

Zhao was admitted to Beijing Hospital in February with pneumonia, said a source close to the family who spoke on condition of anonymity. X-rays had showed his lungs "did not have many healthy parts."

"He was in critical condition. Doctors called together his family," the source told Reuters.

"Jiang Zemin's private doctor went to the hospital to inquire about Zhao's condition, worried Zhao was dying," the source said, referring to Zhao's successor who now heads the powerful Central Military Commission.

Zhao was discharged from hospital after about three weeks and was recuperating at home but needed an oxygen mask to breathe more easily, the source said.

"He uses oxygen at home. Without it, he can walk only a few steps," the source said.

The hospital and the cabinet declined comment.

Zhao's daughter, Wang Yannan, could not be reached, but her secretary said she had no knowledge of Zhao's illness.

Bao Tong, once Zhao's top aide and the most senior official jailed for opposing the massacre, said by telephone he was unaware that Zhao had been in hospital.

LINE CUT

But the line was cut when Bao, who has been under constant police surveillance, was asked to comment on what ramifications

Zhao's death might have.

Zhao was last seen in public on May 19, 1989, when he tearfully begged student protesters to leave Tiananmen Square, where the protest was centred. Beijing declared martial law the next day and the army crushed the movement on June 3-4.

He was accused of trying to split the Communist Party and sacked from its powerful five-member Politburo Standing Committee. Jiang took his place as party general secretary.

Analysts said Zhao had stood virtually no chance of staging a political comeback and lacked the power to influence the day-to-day world of Chinese politics.

But some top leaders involved in, or who benefited from, the crackdown are still alive or in power and see Zhao as a security threat or as a political ghost haunting them, analysts said.

"Zhao has been silenced and his influence has waned, but he still has many sympathisers," said Jin Zhong, publisher of Hong Kong's Open magazine and a veteran China watcher.

"But his death would rekindle memories of the massacre and lead to a wave of demands for a reappraisal," Jin added.

Tightening the security noose, authorities last week briefly detained three women whose relatives were killed in the massacre, saying one had confessed in custody to trying to import T-shirts with slogans marking the anniversary of the crackdown.

Police have also detained a noted AIDS activist, Chinese and overseas sources said on Monday, apparently over his plans to commemorate the victims of Tiananmen.

Zhao's death could become a rallying point for reformists and workers disgruntled about soaring unemployment and the widening gap between rich and poor, analysts said. It would present the new leadership headed by president and party chief Hu Jintao with a sensitive political problem, they added.

The death in January 1976 of populist premier Zhou Enlai led to an outpouring of grief and protests on Tiananmen Square. The passing of purged reform-minded party chief Hu Yaobang in April 1989 triggered the demonstrations that year.

Jiang Yanyong, the military doctor who blew the whistle on China's SARS cover-up last year, wrote to national leaders in February, calling for a reappraisal of the protests, still regarded officially as a "counter-revolutionary rebellion." Reuters