Word: zhao
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...that the soldiers would move into Beijing as soon as the city's residents understood the need to restore order. From all available signs, Deng Xiaoping had cast his lot with the hard- line faction headed by Li. The losers were a more reformist group led by party chief Zhao Ziyang. Diplomatic sources said that Zhao had been stripped of his power, although perhaps not his title, and put under house arrest for daring to challenge the paramount authority of Deng. As for Deng, he is believed to be in the capital, personally directing troop movements by phone. Last week...
...ouster of Zhao, who was rumored to be under house arrest, was the most telling proof of a rift in the leadership between conservatives and reformers. According to some sources, Zhao offered to resign when his proposals to + accommodate the students were rejected by the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest policymaking body of the Communist Party. Others in Beijing claim that the party chief's fall, which could well presage a purge of other liberal reformers, came partly because of remarks he made during a remarkable predawn visit with Li to the hunger strikers on Friday...
...Premier left quickly, but Zhao stayed on. A proponent of rapid economic reform, Zhao was well aware that his predecessor, Hu Yaobang, supported political reform and was sacked for not moving quickly enough to crush student demonstrations more than two years ago. (Hu's death on April 15 sparked the first demonstrations of the past tumultuous month.) But in Tiananmen, Zhao did not go out of his way to avoid Hu's mistake. His eyes welling with tears, he acknowledged the patriotism of the students. "I came too late, too late," a student quoted him as saying. "I should...
...Zhao's remarks to the students finally precipitated his fall, they were apparently not the only reason. In his talk with Gorbachev, telecast live to millions of Chinese on Tuesday, Zhao told of a secret party agreement specifying that Deng, though semiretired, was responsible for major party decisions. The document, crafted in 1987, was a compromise that paved the way for the retirement of a clutch of old party conservatives. That disclosure got Zhao in trouble less because it was made to the representative of an old enemy nation than because it signaled to the viewing audience that resentment...
...Zhao's dismissal removed an obstacle to the coming crackdown but did little to help the government restore order. If anything, it probably widened the chasm between state and society. Though Zhao was originally a protege of Deng's, his popularity rose because the public knew he opposed suppressing the demonstration. His eviction from power further alienated those already hostile to the Communist Party. It also narrowed the party's options for restoring order, making force seem virtually the sole choice...