Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang (37 page)

L
EI
J
IEQIONG
(1905–) was a professor at Peking University and chairwoman of the China Association for Promoting Democracy from 1987 to 1997.

L
I
P
ENG
(1928–) was a Power Industry Minister and a Vice Premier before becoming Premier in 1987 as part of the shuffle that resulted from the ouster of Hu Yaobang. In 1989, as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, Li promoted the decision for a military crackdown on the protesters in Tiananmen Square, making him one of the principal characters influencing that course of events.

L
I
R
UI
(1917–) was Vice Minister of Water Conservancy and Electric Power and in 1958 became one of Mao Zedong’s political secretaries. Li was expelled from the Party and jailed in 1959 for siding with Peng Dehuai, who had expressed reservations about Mao’s Great Leap Forward campaign. Li’s case was overturned in 1979 and he became Vice Director of the Organization Department. Li was one of the most outspoken supporters of reform, and is known for his series of published recollections and commentaries on Mao.

L
I
R
UIHUAN
(1934–) was the Communist Party’s secretary of Tianjin. Li became a member of the Politburo in 1987 and a member of its Standing Committee in June 1989. Li’s membership on the Standing Committee was made possible by the vacancies left by Zhao Ziyang and Hu Qili. He was moderately pro-reform.

L
I
T
IEYING
(1936–) was a member of the Politburo and director of the State Education Commission from 1988 to 1993.

L
I
W
EIHAN
(1896–1984) was Director of the United Front Work Department from 1948 to 1964 and vice chairman of the Central Advisory Commission from 1982 to 1984.

L
I
X
IANNIAN
(1909–92) was Vice Premier in charge of economic affairs from 1954 to 1980, and was involved in directing the Mao-style state-controlled economic system. In the post-Mao era, Li viewed many reform policies as having reversed or implicitly criticizing his past work. He served as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee from 1977 to 1987, as President of the People’s Republic of China from 1983 to 1988, and as chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference from 1988 to 1992. Li remained a powerful conservative influence and attempted to block the reversals of Mao’s policies in the economic and political arenas.

L
I
X
IMING
(1926–2008) was the Communist Party’s secretary of Beijing. In 1989, Li actively promoted the hard-line approach to the student protests in Tiananmen Square. In 1993, Li became a vice chairman of the National People’s Congress.

L
I
Y
IMANG
(1903–90) was Deputy Director of the International Liaison Department from 1974 to 1982 and deputy secretary of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission from 1978 to 1982.

L
I
Y
ONG
(1948–) was Zhao Ziyang’s secretary of military affairs from 1985 to 1989 and later became director of the Development Commission of Tianjin.

L
I
Z
HENGTING
(1918–) was deputy secretary of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission from 1987 to 1993.

L
IANG
B
UTING
(1921–) was the Communist Party secretary of Shandong Province from 1983 to 1988.

L
IANG
X
IANG
(1918–98) was the Communist Party secretary of Shenzhen from 1981 to 1995 and the governor of Hainan Province from 1988 to 1989. Liang is recognized as a pioneer in implementing reform in Shenzhen, one of the first designated Special Economic Zones.

L
IAO
H
ANSHENG
(1911–2006) was a veteran of the army and served as a vice chairman of the National People’s Congress from 1983 to 1993.

L
IN
T
UNG-
Y
EN
(1912–2003) was a Chinese American structural engineer and founder of T. Y. Lin International.

L
IU
B
INYAN
(1925–2005) was an influential journalist who in the 1980s was a pioneer in exposing serious social problems. Liu was a senior reporter at the
People’s Daily
from 1979 to 1987 and was exiled to the United States after 1989.

L
IU
S
HAOQI
(1898–1969) was one of the founding leaders of the People’s Republic of China. After its establishment, Liu held the most senior position after Mao. Liu disagreed with radical Maoist economic policies, such as the Great Leap Forward and the rural people’s communes. Purged by Mao, Liu died in isolation and humiliation during the Cultural Revolution.

L
IU
Z
HENGWEN
(1912–) was vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of Anhui Province from 1987 to 1997.

L
U
D
INGYI
(1906–96) was a liberal writer within the ranks of the Communist Party. Lu became a vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in 1980.

L
U
K
ENG
(1919–2008) was a prominent journalist in Hong Kong. His interview with Hu Yaobang in 1985 angered Deng Xiaoping and became one of the key reasons behind Deng’s decision to dismiss Hu.

L
U
Z
HICHAO
(1933–) was the appointed leader of the Political Group of the Central Committee Secretariat Research Division headed by Hu Qiaomu. Lu also was chief of the Theoretical Studies Bureau of the Department of Propaganda.

M
AO
Z
EDONG
(1893–1976) was one of the founders of the People’s Republic of China and the supreme leader of the Chinese Communist Party. During the post–civil war period from 1949 to 1976, Mao’s goal of a rapid transformation to socialism was the nation’s priority. To realize this objective, China created a system of state planning and ownership, and Mao periodically waged mass campaigns to root out opposition both outside and within the Party. After his death, the Party’s reforms reversed Mao’s social and economic programs, but he nonetheless remains the icon of the Chinese revolution.

M
ENG
X
IANZHONG
(unknown) was an official in the Communist Party’s General Office of the Central Committee in the 1990s.

Y
ASUHIRO
N
AKASONE
(1918–) is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister from 1982 to 1987. In that role, he normalized diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.

N
IE
R
ONGZHEN
(1899–1992) was one of ten marshals in the People’s Liberation Army. He served as director of the General Staff Department of the PLA from 1950 to 1954 and as director of the State Science and Technology Commission from 1958 to 1970. Nie was credited for his leadership of the Chinese nuclear weapons and military space programs.

C
HRISTOPHER
P
ATTEN
(1944–) was the last British governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997. After Hong Kong’s handover to China, Patten served as the European Union Commissioner for foreign relations. He is now the Chancellor of Newcastle University and the University of Oxford. As governor of Hong Kong, Patten attempted to reform the election process of the Hong Kong legislature, an effort for which he was vilified by the Chinese government.

P
ENG
C
HONG
(1915–) was secretary of the Central Committee Secretariat and a vice chairman of the National People’s Congress in the 1980s.

P
ENG
D
EHUAI
(1898–1974) was a prominent People’s Liberation Army commander who served as the People’s Republic of China’s first Defense Minister. In 1959, Peng criticized Mao’s Great Leap Forward, which incurred Mao’s wrath. Peng was purged and publicly humiliated. His fate, together with that of Liu Shaoqi, are the primary showcases of Mao’s whim.

P
ENG
Z
HEN
(1902–97) was an influential Party elder who was chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress from 1983 to 1988.

Q
IAN
L
IREN
(1924–) was the director of the
People’s Daily
from 1985 to 1989.

Q
IAO
S
HI
(1924–) was a member of the Politburo in charge of the security apparatus. Qiao became Vice Premier in 1986 and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee in 1987. In 1989, though he originally agreed with Zhao’s moderate approach to the student movement, Qiao abstained from taking a side at the moment that a decision was made for a military crackdown. He ultimately carried out Deng’s orders.

Q
IN
B
ENLI
(1918–91) was chief editor of the
World Economic Herald,
an outspoken pro-reform newspaper in Shanghai. Qin published commemorative articles about Hu Yaobang in April 1989 despite Party officials’ warnings not to. He was removed from office by the Communist Party secretary of Shanghai, Jiang Zemin. This highly publicized and controversial event turned out to be an unexpected boon to Jiang’s political career, as just months later, after the Tiananmen crackdown, he was chosen to replace Zhao as General Secretary.

R
EN
Z
HONGYI
(1914–2005) was the Communist Party’s first secretary of Guangdong Province from 1980 to 1985. He was a leading practitioner of the reform policies in one of China’s most progressive regions.

R
UAN
C
HONGWU
(1933–) was Minister of Public Security from 1985 to 1987 and became deputy director of the State Science and Technology Commission soon after Hu Yaobang was forced to resign.

R
UI
X
INGWEN
(1927–2005) was the Communist Party’s secretary of Shanghai from 1985 to 1987. Rui was a secretary of the Party’s Central Committee Secretariat from 1987 to 1989 and was an ardent supporter of reform. Rui was removed from his official post for taking a stand sympathetic to the student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

S
ONG
P
ING
(1917–) was deputy director of the State Planning Commission from 1972 to 1987 and Director of the Organization Department from 1987 to 1989. After the June Fourth incident, he ascended to the Politburo Standing Committee, along with Li Ruihuan, to fill the spots left vacant by Zhao Ziyang and Hu Qili.

S
ONG
R
ENQIONG
(1909–2005) was an influential Party elder. He was Director of the Organization Department from 1978 to 1983 and a member of the Politburo from 1982 to 1985.

S
U
S
HAOZHI
(1923–) was the director of the Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences from 1982 to 1987. Accused of having “liberal tendencies,” Su lost his position in 1987 and was exiled after 1989.