Purged for opposition to June 4 crackdown, Zhao Ziyang to be laid to rest 10 years after death

By Athena Rees, April 7, 2015

The family of the purged former premier Zhao Ziyang were finally given the go-ahead by officials to bury his ashes on April 5. It was after the death of Zhao's wife, Liang Boqi, in 2013, that the issue was resurrected as the family hoped for the couple to be buried together.

Zhao Ziyang was expelled from the Communist Party for his excessively lenient take on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Showing sympathy with the students and opposing military action against them, Zhao was branded a traitor intent on cauing a 'split in the party'. For the next 16 years until his death in 2005, Zhao was kept under strict house arrest by officials fearful of the public support he might garner.

The fear of seeing the leader made into a martyr was evident in the heavily censored reporting of his death and played-down ceremony at which, there were no speeches or cameras allowed.

Because of this, the Party had only offered a small-scale burial in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. Zhao's family worried this would restrict access to his ashes so requested a private burial instead, which had been outright rejected until now. Although a site has not yet been confirmed, Zhao Ziyang's son Zhao Wujun stated that ''[officials'] attitude was sincere and we can talk about things.''

However, the CCP is unlikely to pardon Zhao and are still apprehensive of the undetermined site becoming a shrine to the late reformer.