i
BEIJING;Wan Li a major Chinese Communist
political figure who served as vice
premier and who was seen as a liberal
voice in the communist leadership has
died ,state television reported Wednesday
He was 98..
CCTV said among the opening headlines
of its main evening news bulletin that Wan
Li died in Beijing,
Wan was classed by some analysts as one
of communist China's so called Eight
Immortals ,a reference to a group of elite
elderly revolutionaries who survived the
purges of Maoism and backed the ascent
f Deng Xiaoping -one of their number
to power,
He was chairman of the rubber stamp
legislature National People's Congress
(NPC) for five years from 1988,a tumul-
tuous time that saw the bloody crackdown
on pro-democracy protestors at Tiananmen
Square in Beijing in June 1989,
Like many Chinses officials Wan was
persecuted during the chaotic 1966 -1976
Cultural Revolution ,though he was rehabilitated
and became vice premier in the 1980's
before being named head of the NPC
Online Chinese news outlet The Paper reported
that Wan died of illness on Wednesday
afternoon ,citing his son,
A fine tennis player and known for an affabe
personality ,Wan was close to Zhao Ziyang
,the communist party general secretary who was
ousted after opposing the use of forces to clear
Tiananmen Square of protestors ,Zhao died
in 2005.
Qiao was also widely seen by analysts as
opposing the military crackdown on the
Tiananmen demonstrations though he and
Wan unlike Zhao apparently were largely
undamaged politically by their stance-
AFP
No comments :
Post a Comment