CHINA: China's political leadership plans to commemorate tomorrow, for the first time, the birthday of deposed leader Hu Yaobang, whose death prompted mourning that triggered the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Hu Yaobang was fired in 1987 as general-secretary of the ruling Communist Party's central committee because of his comparatively liberal leanings.
The communists have wrangled for months over whether to commemorate the 90th anniversary of his birth and, in the end, the ceremony was reportedly given president Hu Jintao's personal seal of approval. He overruled colleagues on the nine-member politburo who feared it could threaten China's stability.
This makes the event politically significant, as by allying himself to the memory of a reform-minded liberal, Hu Jintao could be trying to highlight his own reformist credentials.
Some analysts are reading it as a sign that Hu Jintao may be about to take a more liberal tack. To date his leadership has involved a lot of pressure on the media, non-governmental organisations and any other groups threatening single-party rule by the communists.
Hu Jintao and Hu Yaobang are not related, but both are cut from the same political cloth, as Hu Jintao's power base is in the Communist Youth League, which was led by Hu Yaobang.
By linking himself to the one-time Youth League leader, Hu Jintao is also seeking to consolidate his strong position with the Communist Youth League's 71 million members.
Hu Yaobang was a vocal supporter of rehabilitating the victims of political persecution during the Anti-Rightist movement of 1957 and the 1965-75 Cultural Revolution. Together with his successor, Zhao Ziyang, he also pioneered economic reform.
Hu Yaobang was ousted in 1987 by then supreme leader Deng Xiaoping for allowing student pro-democracy unrest, accused at the time of fostering the spread of "bourgeois liberalism" by party hardliners. When he died in April 1989, student admirers of his reformist record paid their respects in Tiananmen Square.
The enormous outpouring of sympathy turned into demonstrations that were ultimately crushed by the People's Liberation Army on June 4th, 1989, in which thousands are believed to have died.
Discussion of the massacre and Hu Yaobang has been effectively forbidden since, although some believe the commemoration could be a first step in the rehabilitation of Hu Yaobang. But it is unlikely to lead to a public reassessment of what happened in Beijing on June 4th, 1989. The Communist Party line is that the crackdown was necessary for stability.
Most Chinese media have been quiet about the events to mark the anniversary, although it has featured in more daring journals and in internet chat-rooms.
An event will be staged in Liuyang, a city several hours' drive from Hu Yaobang's home village Cangfang, on Sunday, what would have been his 90th birthday. The central government commemorates his birth in Beijing tomorrow.