Qin Benli; Editor of Provocative Paper in China

Qin Benli, an editor who turned his newspaper into China’s liveliest forum for political and economic debate only to have it shut down, has died in Shanghai at 73.

Qin had suffered from stomach cancer for several years and it was because of his illness that he was not jailed for supporting the 1989 democracy movement.

Several journalists for his newspaper, World Economic Herald, were arrested and the paper was disbanded.

Shanghai’s Foreign Affairs Office said Qin died Monday at Huadong Hospital.

He died exactly two years after the April 15, 1989, death of ousted party General Secretary Hu Yaobang, which triggered the democracy movement.

Under Qin, the Herald became China’s liveliest newspaper, publishing provocative commentaries and scholarly analyses.

Because it was published by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences rather than the government, like most Chinese media, it was less subject to control.

The beginning of the end came in April, 1989, when the newspaper devoted most of an issue to eulogizing Hu, who had been fired as party chief in 1987 for being too liberal.

Several speeches by intellectuals, published in the Herald, said the party was wrong to oust Hu and called him a “great Marxist,” a phrase normally reserved for Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.

Shanghai authorities confiscated most of the edition, fired Qin and put a five-member committee in his place.

College students who were already marching in Beijing to demand democratic reforms championed Qin and the Herald, demanding his reinstatement. Shanghai students also began marching for reform and defending Qin. Hundreds of Chinese journalists signed a petition calling for Qin’s return.

The Herald put out several more issues under its new leadership before being shut down in May.