Hu Yaobang

Hu Yaobang
胡耀邦
Hu during a visit to Rome in 1986
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party
In office 12 September 1982 – 15 January 1987
Preceded by	Himself (as Chairman)
Succeeded by	Zhao Ziyang
Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party
In office 29 June 1981 – 12 September 1982
Deputy	Ye Jianying
Preceded by	Hua Guofeng
Succeeded by	Himself (as General Secretary)
General Secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party
In office 29 February 1980 – 12 September 1982
Chairman	Hua Guofeng Himself
Preceded by	Deng Xiaoping (1966)
Succeeded by	Hu Qili (First Secretary)
Personal details
Born	(1915-11-20)20 November 1915 Liuyang, Hunan, Republic of China
Died	15 April 1989(1989-04-15) (aged 73) Beijing, People's Republic of China
Resting place	Gongqingcheng, Jiujiang
Political party	Chinese Communist Party (1933–1989)
Spouse	Li Zhao ​ (m. 1941⁠–⁠1989)​
Children	4
Signature
Central institution membership 1980–1989: 11th, 12th, 13th Politburo Standing Committee 1980–1989: 11th, 12th, 13th Politburo 1980–1982: 11th Secretariat 1972–1989: 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th Central Committee 1954–1989: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th 7th National People's Congress Other offices held 1978–1980: Head, Propaganda Department 1977–1978: Head, Organization Department 1964–1965: Party Committee Secretary, Shaanxi Province 1953–1978: First Secretary, Communist Youth League

Hu Yaobang
"Hu Yaobang" in Chinese characters
Chinese	胡耀邦
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hú Yàobāng Wade–Giles Hu2 Yao4-pang1 IPA [xǔ jâʊ.páŋ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Wùh Yiuh-bōng Jyutping Wu4 Jiu6-bong1 IPA [wuː˩ jiːu˨ pɔːŋ˥] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Hô Iāu-pang

Hu Yaobang (Chinese: 胡耀邦; pinyin: Hú Yàobāng; 20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a Chinese politician who was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1987, first as Chairman from 1981 to 1982, then as General Secretary from 1982 to 1987. After the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Hu rose to prominence as a close ally of Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader of China at the time.

Hu joined the CCP in the 1930s. During the Cultural Revolution, he was purged, recalled, and purged again by Mao Zedong. After Deng rose to power, following Mao's death, Hu played an important role in the Boluan Fanzheng program. Throughout the 1980s, he pursued a series of economic and political reforms under the supervision of Deng. Meanwhile, Hu's political and economic reforms also made him the enemy of several powerful Party elders, who opposed free-market and government reforms. When widespread student protests occurred across China in December 1986 and January 1987, Hu's political opponents blamed him for the disruptions and convinced Deng that Hu's tolerance of "bourgeois liberalization" had instigated the protests. Hu was forced to resign as General Secretary in early 1987, but allowed to retain his membership in the Politburo.

Hu's position as General Secretary was succeeded by his close ally Zhao Ziyang, who carried on many of Hu's economic and political reforms. A day after Hu's death in April 1989, a small-scale unofficial commemoration took place in Beijing, during which people demanded that the Chinese government reassess and recognize Hu's legacy; a week later, the day before Hu's funeral, some 100,000 students marched on Tiananmen Square, eventually leading to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in June. The Chinese government subsequently censored details of Hu's life, but in 2005 it officially rehabilitated his image and lifted its censorships, on the occasion of his 90th birth anniversary. Hu was buried in Gongqingcheng in Jiangxi.