Li Zhao, wife of reformist leader Hu Yaobang, dies at 96
Wife of reformist leader was also well-connected to the top leadership
Li Zhao, the wife of former leader Hu Yaobang, died on Saturday afternoon aged 96, according to her son.
“She passed away at 4:18 this afternoon. She was very peaceful and in no pain at all,” Hu Dehua told the South China Morning Post.
Hu Yaobang was the Communist Party General Secretary before he was sacked in 1987 for sympathising with student protesters. His death in April 1989 triggered a wave of memorials and protests in Tiananmen Square, which were put down violently that June.
Hu was seen as a symbol of the party’s liberal faction. He played a leading role in vindicating people who were persecuted and punished during the Cultural Revolution, a decade of destructive social and political upheaval.
