In Compromise, Zhao to Be Buried in Hallowed Ground

The Chinese government and relatives of ousted Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang have reached an agreement to hold his scaled-down funeral Saturday at a cemetery reserved for senior party officials, people who have been invited to the service said Thursday.

But it remains to be seen whether senior leaders will attend the event or there will be a formal eulogy assessing the man who rose almost to the top of the Communist hierarchy before falling from grace for sympathizing with student protesters during the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising in the capital.

That it took more than a week after his Jan. 17 death to negotiate the proper arrangements is an indication of how potent a symbol Zhao remains 15 years after authorities in Beijing put him under house arrest and virtually expunged him from public consciousness.

The 85-year-old former premier was said to be in poor health for some time, so officials have had years to prepare for his passing. But how to treat Zhao’s legacy has been a long-standing dilemma.

Despite the government’s claim that he undermined party unity by supporting pro-democracy students, Zhao also made great contributions by helping to launch market-oriented reforms that spurred China’s economic development.

“The party is caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Richard Baum, a China expert at UCLA. “How could they say he made contributions without saying he was a great Communist and tacitly reverse the verdict on his life?”

If Beijing rehabilitates Zhao, it will be forced to reevaluate the Tiananmen massacre and perhaps even acknowledge the need for broader political freedom. Observers believe that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

“It’s clear they want to maintain control over the definition of June 4th,” said David Zweig, a China expert at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, referring to the 1989 crackdown in which hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed by security forces. “Zhao’s death brings that issue again to the foreground.”

To avoid revisiting that sensitive period, the party’s instinct is to play down Zhao’s death and continue to airbrush him and the Tiananmen massacre from history. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are unlikely to change that strategy in part because they owe their own ascents to Zhao’s downfall.

Although there won’t be an elaborate state funeral with the lowering of flags and official tributes on prime-time television, any memorial for the deposed leader would signal a small softening on the part of party leaders. They can’t afford to let the appearance of total disrespect for someone of Zhao’s political stature trigger public unrest in a country with a history of mass protests in the name of deceased public figures.

“I think originally they didn’t want to do anything,” Baum said. “Then they sensed that if they don’t do anything, it won’t just go away. It’ll be a bone in the throat and irritate.”

The main sticking point between the family and the government had been the content of the official obituary. The government is believed to want it to say that Zhao made a mistake by siding with student demonstrators and causing a division in the party. Zhao never agreed with that characterization and neither have his relatives.

According to people who have spoken to family members, there could be a compromise in which no official assessment of Zhao’s life would be given at the funeral. Instead, there would be a viewing of the body by invited guests at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery on the west side of the Chinese capital.

The public is unlikely to learn about it until afterward, if at all. State media continued their silence on Zhao’s passing except for a terse dispatch last week that referred to him only as “comrade,” with no mention of his former titles or reference to his role in the 1989 drama.

Whatever is said Saturday about the man remembered for his tearful urging of students to leave Tiananmen Square, it probably won’t be the last word on his legacy.

His interment “does not mean the issue of Zhao and Tiananmen would not be revisited,” said Jiang Wenran, a China scholar at the University of Alberta in Canada. “The possibility of reevaluation won’t be buried with him.”