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Sons of Hu Yaobang and Deng Xiaoping criticize Chinese leadership

Sons of Hu Yaobang and Deng Xiaoping criticize Chinese leadership

Posted January. 18, 2019 07:30,   

Updated January. 18, 2019 07:32

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Hu Deping, the late reformist General Secretary Hu Yaobang whose 1989 death ultimately led to the Tiananmen Square crackdown, said that the fall of the Soviet Union was attributable to highly centralized power and a rigid economic system, adding that the Chinese leadership needs to learn from the lessons of the Soviet Union.

“One of the fatal errors made by the Soviets is that they followed a political system with highly centralized power and a rigid economic system,” Hu said at a seminar held in Beijing on Wednesday. "By the same token, not all socialist countries must practice a planned economy."

Hu served as the vice chairman of All-China General Chamber of Industry and Commerce by 2013. His father was initially hailed as the successor for Deng Xiaoping but fell from power in 1987 because he had responded tepidly to the 1986 student protest that occurred. His sudden death in April 1989 triggered protests at the Tiananmen Square.

Hu’s Wednesday remarks are meaningful given that this year marks the 30th year since the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Some view Hu’s remarks as criticism toward the Chinese leadership, which is promoting a highly concentrated power structure where “the Communist Party should lead everything” and strengthening control of the market.

“We should know our place," Deng Pufang (age 75), Deng Xiaoping’s first son and the leader of the Chinese Association for the Disabled, said in a speech in last October. "We should not be boastful and steadily move forward for openness and reform. We should not regress at any cost.”


Wan-Jun Yun zeitung@donga.com