Ex-China Leader Hu Yaobang Dies

Hu Yaobang, former Chinese Communist Party leader, died of a heart attack in Peking this morning, the official New China News Agency said.

Hu, once the protege of senior leader Deng Xiaoping and still a member of the party’s powerful Politburo, was ousted in January, 1987 by party hard-liners after a wave of student protests calling for more freedom and democracy.

Hu, 73, suffered a heart attack April 8, the agency said. He was given all possible medical attention “but to no avail.”

The agency said Hu had another sudden, major heart attack this morning.

Western newspapers reported Hu suffered his first attack during a meeting of the Politburo last Saturday.

“I should point out that the fact he is ill has nothing directly to do with the Politburo meeting,” Premier Li Peng told reporters Wednesday on leaving for Japan.

Li said he had visited Hu in the hospital on April 9 and that his condition had improved.

Chinese sources said Hu had enjoyed little effective power within the Politburo since he was forced to resign in 1987.

Hu’s liberal attitudes made him popular among foreign leaders and Chinese intellectuals but led to his downfall at the hands of party hard-liners who accused him of allowing Western political ideas to spread unchecked.

He was succeeded as party general secretary by Zhao Ziyang, heir apparent of the 84-year-old Deng.