Tiananmen Square Document 6: IPAC Daily Intelligence Summary 10-87, China: Hu Yaobang Resigns, 1987

Later that same month, on January 17, 1987, another Pacific Command intelligence summary reported the resignation of Hu Yaobang, from his post as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. An advocate of both economic and political reforms, the summary notes that Hu’s resignation "is probably the result of the recent student demonstrations." After his death in April 1989 students gathered in Tiananmen Square to mourn the loss of a respected leader. What began as a profound expression of sorrow, however, would soon develop into the massive pro-democracy demonstration that occupied Tiananmen Square in the period preceding the crackdown of June 3-4, 1989.

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Original source: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/documents/index.html#d6