The death of the former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Secretary General Zhao Ziyang on Jan. 17 made reverberations at home and abroad. One after another, people of all circles made comments on his merits and the current ruling authority, the CCP, and their attitude and course of action during this event.

In an interview with a “Tiananmen Mother,” (a mother of a victim of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre), Mrs. Zhang Xianling said that she thought Zhao was a person who valued his humanity, had a conscience and persevered in his moral standards in the midst of CCP members.

She believes the CCP should issue righteous wording to praise him, but unfortunately they don’t seem to have the courage to do so. Mrs. Zhang also criticized the fact that the Chinese government and authorities restricted civilians from attending the commemoration ceremonies for Mr. Zhao and conducted surveillance on dissenters.

Mrs. Zhang said, “I feel that it [to say goodbye to Zhao Ziyang] is something that we should do, and doing so is just human nature. The people all miss him very much. I feel that the current authority is too weak. Too weak! What will happen if people go there [Zhao Ziyang’s residence] and mourn for him? I think it’s only a humane act. How can it be scary to permit people to mourn for a dead man? Yet, some people cannot go there.”

Zhang added, “The current authority is so scared, because it’s too weak. This is what it means ‘to have a guilty conscience’. The rest of us are not scared at all.”
The writer asked, “Is it possible for the authority to hold a memorial for him or issue him an equitable appraise?”

Mrs. Zhang added that Zhao was a symbol of “openness” in the history of China’s development, and that he made great contributions to the development of the Chinese people including in the area of democratization.

(Summarized from the program Tian Xia Zong Heng from Sound of Hope International Radio.)