Hu Yaobang

Hu Yaobang (20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a Chinese politician who was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China.

Hu joined the CCP in the 1930s.

During the Cultural Revolution, he was purged, recalled, and purged again by Mao Zedong.

After Deng Xiaoping rose to power, following the death of Mao Zedong, Hu played an important role in the "Boluan Fanzheng" program.

During the factional struggles that polarized the CCP during the 1930s, Hu supported Mao Zedong and opposed the 28 Bolsheviks.

Hu was one of the youngest veterans of the Long March.

Once Mao was removed from power, shortly before the beginning of the Fourth Encirclement Campaign, Mao's supporters were persecuted, and Hu Yaobang was sentenced to death.

Just before the beginning of the Long March, he and others were on their way to be beheaded.

However, a powerful local communist commander named Tan Yubao intervened at the last minute, saving Hu's life.

Because of Hu's support of Mao, he was deemed unreliable and ordered to join the Long March so that he could be placed under surveillance.

Hu Yaobang was seriously wounded in the battle of Mount Lu, near Zunyi, close to the area where Mao Zedong rose back to power via the Zunyi Conference.

After Hu was wounded the communist Field Medic teams chose not to help Hu, and left him in the battlefield to die on the side of the road.

Hu was rescued by a childhood friend of his, a Chinese Red Army commander, who happened to pass by.

Hu called out his friend's nickname to ask for help, and the friend helped him catch up with the retreating main force of the Chinese Red Army and get treatment for his wounds.

Hu was taken prisoner by the KMT during the Long March.

Hu participated in his first rebellion when he was twelve, left his family to join the Chinese Communist Party when he was only fourteen, and became a full member of the Party in 1933.

In 1936, Hu had joined an expeditionary force led by Zhang Guotao.

The objective of Zhang's 21,800+ strong force, was to cross the Yellow River, to expand the communist base west of Shaanxi, and to link up with forces from the Soviet Union or with the Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai, who was an ally of the communists and the Soviet Union.

Zhang Guotao's forces were soundly defeated by the local Nationalist warlords, the Ma clique.

Hu Yaobang, along with Qin Jiwei, became two of the thousands of prisoners-of-war captured by Ma clique's forces.

Hu was one of only 1,500 prisoners-of-war whom Ma Bufang decided to use as forced labor rather than execute.

Ma Bufang sent several Muslim cavalry divisions under General Ma Biao to fight against the Japanese.

However Chiang Kai-shek pressured Ma Bufang to contribute even more of his troops to fight Japanese invaders, Ma Bufang decided that, instead of using more of his own troops, he would instead send the 1,500 Chinese Red Army prisoners-of-war as conscripts.

Since the marching route had to pass the border of the communist base in Shaanxi, Hu Yaobang and Qin Jiwei decided to return to the Communists, and secretly organized an escape.

The escape took place as planned and was a success: out of the total 1,500 POWs, more than 1,300 successfully returned to Yan'an.

Mao personally welcomed these returning communists, and Hu Yaobang returned to communist forces, where he would remain for rest of his life.

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.

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 reforms and his reforms of China's government.

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.

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 Xiaoping that Hu's tolerance on "bourgeois liberalization" had instigated the protests.

Hu was forced to resign as the general secretary of CCP in early 1987, but was allowed to retain his membership in the Politburo.

Hu's position as the CCP's 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 reassesses and recognizes 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.

Following the 1989 protests, the Chinese government censored the details of Hu's life within mainland China, but later in 2005 the government officially rehabilitated Hu's image and lifted its censorships, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Hu's birth.

Hu was buried in Gongqingcheng in Jiangxi.

Hu Yaobang's ancestors were Hakkas from Jiangxi.

During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) they migrated into Hunan, where Hu was born.

Hu Yaobang was born into a poor peasant family.

He did not have formal education and taught himself to read.