China breaks silence on late Hu

China Travel Services

Hu Yaobang was sacked for allowing too much reform and protest

China is publicly marking for the first time the birthday of ex-Communist party leader Hu Yaobang, whose death sparked the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

Hu was a popular party figure sacked in 1987 by then ruler Deng Xiaoping for failing to stamp out student protests.

Senior figures are expected to attend a low-key ceremony on Friday for what would have been Hu's 90th birthday.

The event, considered as signalling Hu Yaobang's rehabilitation, comes a day before the US leader's visit to China.

The BBC's Louisa Lim in Beijing say Chinese President Hu Jintao may be hoping to burnish his reputation as a reformer ahead of George W Bush's visit.

Earlier this week Mr Bush called on China to implement democratic reforms and grant political freedoms.

No re-evaluation

The memorial will be held two days before the 90th anniversary of Hu Yaobang's birth.

1989 TIANANMEN EVENTS
15 April: Reformist leader Hu Yaobang dies
22 April: Hu's memorial service. Thousands call for faster reforms
13 May: Students begin hunger strike as power struggle grips Communist Party
15 May: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visits China
19 May: Zhao makes tearful appeal to students in Tiananmen Square to leave
20 May: Martial law declared in Beijing
3-4 June: Security forces clear the square, killing hundreds

Several senior Communist party figures, including Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, will attend the memorial, and a tribute from President Hu - currently out of the country - will be read out.

According to Reuters news agency, 10 liberal intellectual friends invited to the memorial by Hu's family have now been told to stay away.

However the decision to hold the event does not mean China's leaders are re-evaluating the events of 1989, our correspondent adds.

China has repeatedly refused to give a full account of what happened in Tiananmen Square.

Killings

As general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the early 1980s, Hu Yaobang was a key reforming figure as the country emerged from the repression of the Cultural Revolution.

He was particularly popular for his openness, and for rehabilitating thousands of people who had suffered during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.

His death in 1989, two years after his sacking, led to demonstrations of support and calls for faster change in protests that converged on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

On 3-4 June 1989, hundreds of the demonstrators were killed around the Square as the government sent tanks to quash the protests.

Hu Yaobang has not been publicly recognised by the government since the Tiananmen Square events, observers say.