A memorial service for former General Secretary Zhao Ziyang is scheduled to be held at 9 a.m. on Saturday at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. A source close to the former Chinese leader’s family reported on Jan. 28 that China authorities forbade dissidents from attending the service.

According to a report on the BBC’s Chinese Web site on Jan. 28, the government-operated memorial will be one level below the highest level for ordinary Party and national leaders, and will not be open to foreign reporters. Family members who wish to attend the ceremony require official government approval. Authorities have also intensified surveillance in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the neighborhood in which Zhao spent the past 15 years under house arrest and various universities.

Frank Lu, a spokesman for the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, said that the authorities have escalated security and confined many dissidents to their homes. Dissidents who have been barred from the memorial include military doctor Jiang Yanyong, who urged redress for the deadly June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square incident, Liu Xiaobo, a famous dissident who led a hunger strike in protest against the government in the 1989 democracy movement, Ding Zilin, the founder of the “Tiananmen Mothers” movement, and others.

Well-known dissident Ren Wanting said that his home was being watched and he could not go out of the house. Wang Lingyun, who is the mother of the leader of the 1989 student democracy movement, Wang Dan, was invited by Zhao’s family to attend the ceremony, but, the authority did not approve the invitation.

Mr. Lu said that Zhao’s former secretary, Bao Tong, is also not permitted to attend the ceremony. After Zhao’s death, Bao published articles strongly condemning CCP leaders’ illegally holding Zhao under house arrest for nearly 16 years.

According to a report on the ETtoday Web site on Jan. 28, Wang Lingyun went to Beijing’s Jintai Hotel on the morning of Jan. 28 to get a permit to attend the memorial service, but she was rejected on the grounds that her name was not in the list. Staff at the scene said that the participant list was given by supervisors.

Wang Dan expressed his outrage about it and said it was unfair treatment for his mother. In a press statement he released from Taipei, he stated that people who were there registered with his mother all received permits, so this indicated that the authorities targeted his mother.

Wang Dan said that, as a civilian, Wang Lingyun expressed her regret for not being able to pay tribute to Zhao. The authorities’ barring of some from paying their respects to Zhao Ziyang is revealing the guilty conscience of a murderer after the brutal crackdown on students in 1989.

On Jan. 20, Wang Lingyun went to Zhao’s residence in Beijing’s Fuqiang alley and bowed three times to Zhao’s picture on behalf of her son. She also sent greetings to Zhao’s children and signed her son’s name in the guest book. Within 3 hours after she returned home, police were there and questioned her about her going to Zhao’s home.