Reply #2: "When China is free, people will remember Zhao more than Deng" [View All]

[Minstrel Boy]

Mr Zhao has been compared to upright officials in imperial China, who, rather than carry out policies they knew to be wrong, accepted years of banishment by the emperor, becoming popular heroes after their death.

In refusing to co-operate with the military crackdown, Mr Zhao was influenced less by Confucian ideals than by simple humanitarianism, said Professor Wu.

"But unlike former leader Deng Xiaoping in the Cultural Revolution, he never agreed to demands for a self-criticism or made any other concessions to try to win back power.

"When China is free, people will remember Zhao more than Deng," Professor Wu said.
http://www.obv.org.uk/reports/2004/rpt20040602d.htm

Tearfully addressing the students in Tiananmen Square, May 19, 1989, saying he had "come too late." The last time Zhao was seen in public.