From Sichuan’s farm reforms to general secretary, the reformer who opposed martial law in 1989 and died under house arrest
Premier 1980-1987 and general secretary from 1987, in charge of political reform; he lost power over the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and lived under house arrest until his death
From Henan, he was a provincial cadre in Guangdong until purged in the Cultural Revolution, returned as Sichuan first secretary in 1975 and, with household contracting and enterprise autonomy, earned the saying “If you want to eat, look for Ziyang”. Premier from 1980 and general secretary from 1987, he pushed price reform and plans for political reform. In May 1989 he opposed martial law against the student protests, told students in the square “We have come too late”, and fell; he remained under house arrest in Beijing until his death in 2005. His secretly recorded memoirs were published posthumously in Hong Kong.
Career Timeline
- 1975–1980First Secretary of the Sichuan Party Committee
- 1980–1987Premier of the State Council
- 1987–1989General Secretary of the Central Committee
Related historical events
- 1976–1992Reform and opening: the Deng Xiaoping eraFrom Sichuan’s rural reforms to premier and general secretaryDirected economic reform from 1980 to 1989 and raised political reform.
- 1989The Tiananmen protests and the crackdown of 4 June 1989General secretary who opposed martial law and fellTold the students “we have come too late” on 19 May; removed in June and confined.
May 1989: opposing martial law and the fall
When the protests that began as mourning for Hu Yaobang were branded “turmoil” by the People’s Daily editorial of 26 April, Zhao broke with the hardliners in his 4 May speech to the Asian Development Bank, calling the students’ demands patriotic and proposing dialogue. As hunger strikes spread during Gorbachev’s visit, a meeting at Deng Xiaoping’s home on 17 May decided on martial law; Zhao opposed it and offered to resign.
Before dawn on 19 May he went to the square with Wen Jiabao and told the students “We have come too late” — his last public appearance. After the crackdown of 4 June, the Fourth Plenum in late June removed him as general secretary and from the Politburo Standing Committee for “supporting the turmoil and splitting the party”. He kept his party membership but was confined without charge, and his account of the confinement and the leadership’s decisions remains a rare insider testimony.