3RD LD: Hundreds attend controlled funeral for ousted Zhao

Asian Political News, Jan 31, 2005

BEIJING, Jan. 29 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS, BACKGROUND)

Hundreds of ordinary citizens and some senior Chinese officials turned up Saturday at a Beijing cemetery to mourn ousted Chinese Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang in a rigidly controlled funeral in Beijing.

The government also issued its first commentary on Zhao, a key architect of the country's economy-boosting reforms who was purged for sympathizing with pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square in 1989, saying that while he contributed to China, he also committed grave errors.

In a sign of the government's nervousness that the service could spark protests by people with gripes against the current government, dozens of public security officials were posted at the gates of Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, located in western Beijing, turning away the uninvited and swiftly quashing a demonstration.

Those who were told to leave included ordinary citizens without invitations as well as reporters who expressed their wish to cover the event. Uniformed and plainclothes public security agents patrolled the streets dotted by patrol cars.

Chinese Communist Party's No. 4 leader Jia Qinglin, chairman of the China People's Political Consultative Conference's national committee, as well as several other senior officials attended the event, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

The officials ''bid farewell to the remains of Comrade Zhao'' on behalf of the country's leaders, according to the dispatch.

Among those missing from the funeral was Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who appeared in a famous photograph accompanying Zhao when the ousted leader visited the protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The senior officials joined citizens, not only from Beijing but from other areas including Sichuan and Shandong provinces. The citizens paid their respects and placed flowers at the site adorned with several dozen wreaths, witnesses said.

In the first official commentary on Zhao's career, Xinhua said Zhao made a ''contribution to the cause of the party and the people.''

But it added, ''In the political turbulence which took place in the late spring and early summer of 1989, Comrade Zhao committed serious mistakes.''

A focus has been on whether the official media will report the event at all, and if so, how it will portray a figure who remains an icon among Chinese people who oppose the government.

Zhao's death, which has been kept off domestic broadcasters, was also mentioned for the first time by the state-run China Central Television the same day. The report was in line with the Xinhua dispatch.

The ban on broadcasters to air the news was widely believed to be another sign of the government fearing the development would spark memories of the Tiananmen incident and government protests.

Zhao, who held the post of general secretary of the Communist Party from 1987 to 1989, was ousted from power after he spoke sympathetically with student-led demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989 before martial law was declared in Beijing.

The protests were put down by the military on June 4, 1989, and Zhao was placed under house arrest until he died Jan. 17 at the age of 85.

Outside of the cemetery, a group of about 30 people gathered, crying to mourn his death and calling for democracy, but public security agents quickly broke up the group.

''Zhao Ziyang's spirit forever,'' said a banner held up by the men and women wearing white mourning bands around their heads.

People attending the service were given cards with Zhao's picture on the front. Although names of Zhao's family members were printed on the card, neither the party nor the government was mentioned on it.

''He was a great man, and I think that is why so many people came,'' said a 65-year-old woman surnamed Tian.

The Xinhua report said Zhao was cremated at the cemetery in the Beijing suburbs, which is for revolutionary leaders.

Activists said earlier that at least 300 prominent activists and government critics in Beijing will be kept away from the funeral.

The funeral was delayed as the government and Zhao's family disputed whether to bury him in the Babaoshan cemetery and whether to condemn his pre-Tiananmen incident statements in his official biography, people close to Zhao said.