Seeing Zhao Ziyang in a Different Light

It is often easy to feel for the underdog, but sometimes one wonders if an underdog is really an underdog.

Take former Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang (赵紫阳). Since he was under house arrest in 1989 after sympathizing with student demonstrators, and until his death in January 2005, the image that many had of Zhao was one of a progressive leader who happened to be on the wrong side of the political fence.

But according to Kenneth Liberthal, the student demonstrations per se were not the only reason for Zhao's eventual removal from office. Liberthal argued that the demonstrations merely played into elite politics in Beijing, and that by the spring of 1989, Zhao already knew that his days in office were numbered and that he would eventually be made "a scapegoat for the country's economic difficulties." (Kenneth Liberthal, Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform).

The reason why Zhao was not removed earlier was because the Chinese leadership did not want to carry out reshuffles just prior to the visit of then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. But Zhao knew he was in "serious political trouble", and that he would remain in office until at least "a decent interval" after the Gorbachev visit.

Hence, it seemed that Zhao threw in his lot with the students only because he knew there was nothing much to lose.

Indeed, Liberthal argued that Zhao's sympathies for the students were totally unexpected, given Zhao's support for neo-authoritarianism, which supported the idea that the best path to successful reform lies in having a strong autocratic leader who would use his power to implement changes. The idea was supposed to lay the groundwork for Zhao to become an autocratic leader in the event that he succeeds Deng Xiaoping (邓小平) as paramount leader.

Then, there were also the alleged corruption scandals involving Zhao's sons in Guangdong (广东), which had also made Zhao increasingly unpopular.

So was Zhao a hero or just another statesman who had to pay a price for his follies? As with most things in China, there are usually no clear nor satisfactory answers.