The Conscience of the Party : Hu Yaobang, China’s Communist Reformer

The definitive biography of Hu Yaobang, who, as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1980s, promoted popular reforms and took aim at Mao’s personality cult. When Hu’s popularity and politics grew too dangerous for the party, he was purged and suppressed in memory—but not before his death inspired the Tiananmen demonstrations.

The definitive story of a top Chinese politician’s ill-fated quest to reform the Communist Party. When Hu Yaobang died in April 1989, throngs of mourners converged on Tiananmen Square to pay their respects. Two years earlier, Hu had been ousted by party elders, who tried to tarnish his reputation and dim his memory. Yet his death galvanized the pro-democracy movement, setting off the dramatic demonstrations that culminated in the Tiananmen massacre. The Conscience of the Party is the authoritative biography of modern China’s most avid reformer. Mao Zedong himself tapped Hu as a party hand, but his principles made him powerful enemies, and during the Cultural Revolution he was purged, brutally beaten, and consigned to forced labor. After Mao’s death, Hu rose again as an ally of Deng Xiaoping, becoming the party’s general secretary. In that role, Hu pioneered many of the economic reforms attributed to Deng. But Hu also pursued political reforms, pushing for freedom of expression and curbs on CCP leaders’ power. Alarmed by Hu’s popularity and radicalism, Deng had him purged again. Robert Suettinger meticulously reconstructs Hu’s life. A decent man operating in a system that did not always reward decency, Hu Yaobang suffered for his ideals but inspired millions.