Zhao ziyang biography of mahatma

Zhao Ziyang: Chinese reformist leader

A former secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang was a leading reformer. But he was toppled in 1989, after trying to find common ground with the student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

Born in the central Chinese province of Henan in 1919, the son of a wealthy landlord, Zhao joined the Communist Youth League in 1932.

After working as a party official during the liberation war of 1937-49, he rose to prominence in the party in Guangdong province from 1951.

Zhao ziyang

He set about introducing agricultural reforms and became one of few government officials to be appointed to a top provincial post without first serving on the Communist Party's central committee.

Zhao went to meet students in Tiananmen Square in 1989

But he fell foul of Mao Zedong in the 1960s.

The Maoists felt he had betrayed his ideological principles for the sake of capitalist reforms.

During Mao's so-called Cultural Revolution,