Ex-Party Chief Urges Tiananmen Review

Disgraced Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang, sacked after China’s 1989 student demonstrations for democracy, has appealed to the party to review the crackdown, party sources said today.

Zhao’s daring call to the ruling party to reverse its verdict that the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations crushed by the army with heavy loss of life were a “counter-revolutionary rebellion” marked his first political move since he was purged.

“It is baseless to determine the nature of [the movement] as a ‘counter-revolutionary rebellion,’ ” Zhao wrote in his letter addressed to the presidium of the party’s 15th congress that opened Friday.

“Everyone knows that at the time, most of the students wanted punishment of the corrupt and to promote political reform and not to overthrow the Communist Party,” he wrote in the letter, dated Sept. 12.

He described his letter as an open message to the more than 2,000 delegates to the congress, which is held every five years.

“I hope our party will judge the hour and size up the situation, and make an early decision,” he wrote.

The letter had been distributed to members of the party’s ruling Politburo, the party sources said.

Party elders have asked the party’s powerful Politburo standing committee to discuss the delicate issue raised by Zhao, who has been living under virtual house arrest.