CONFIDENTIAL
SHANGHAI
27 June 1989
Sir Alan Donald KCMG
PEKING
Dear Ambassador,
"If Winter comes
1.
"1
•
The Peking Massacre seen from Shanghai
In
Peking has held centre stage throughout the past two months. Viewing the events in the capital from China's largest industrial and commercial city has, nevertheless, provided some unusual insights into China's political morass. addition, Shanghai's role grew over time, culminating in the appointment of its Party Secretary, Jiang Zemin, as successor to the disgraced General Secretary Zhao Ziyang.
2.
The protest movement which built up after the death of former General Secretary Hu Yaobang was played out in Tiananmen, the heart of Peking. It drew strength from a series of events, also centred on the capital, such as 70th anniversary of the May 4th Movement. But one significant event took place in Shanghai early in the unfolding drama. The weekly, "World Economic Herald", edited by Qin Benli from offices in the Shanghai Branch of the Academy of Social Sciences, had long been recognised as a national platform for unorthodox economic and political ideas. Zhao Ziyang was known to have helped prevent its closure when the paper was under attack in the campaign against "bourgeois liberalization" following the student demonstrations in December 1986 which led to the dismissal of Hu Yaobang as General Secretary.
3.
After Hu's death on 15 April, the "World Economic Herald" produced an issue dated 24 April (but printed and some copies distributed on 22 April) devoted to an extensive assessment of Hu's contribution to political life in China, implicitly echoing the students' call for the adverse verdict on him to be reversed. The issue included a fascinating survey of all General Secretaries in the history of the Chinese Communist Party, written by the daughter-in-law of Ye Jianying (the former marshal whose extensive influence both in Peking and in Guangdong Province is still felt 3 years after his death). This issue was withdrawn on 23 April. Qin was summoned by Jiang Zemin who then announced publicly at a meeting of senior cadres on 26 April that Qin had been removed from his post as Editor-in-Chief for refusing to comply with an order from the Municipal Party Committee to change the contents of the issue. Dismissal was therefore
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