After 1987 he set out to kick the Immortals upstairs. Yang attended university in Shanghai before studying Marxist theory in Moscow, making him one of the best educated leaders of the early After the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, Yang held a number of political positions, eventually becoming a member of the powerful Yang served as a military commissar throughout the Yang remained in prison until Mao died and Deng Xiaoping rose to power, in 1978. The march was actually a retreat from the Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek, but, like the British army's escape from Dunkirk in the early days of the second world war, it is celebrated as something of a miraculous victory. Mr Yang was a staunch ally of Deng the reformer, first in Guangdong, where economic experiments began, and then in charge of the modernisation of the People's Liberation Army. He set out to restore the party's reputation by urging economic development and rehabilitating senior victims of the purges. Mr Yang remained a staunch advocate of Deng-style reforms. Yang Shangkun, a Chinese “immortal”, died on September 14th, aged 91IN CHINESE mythology, the eight Immortals were born human but now live on Penglai Shan, an island paradise somewhere east of China.
They did not trust the youngsters (in their 60s and page 70s) to push through economic reforms without destroying the authority of the party.
Mr Yang and the others joined the fledgling Communist Party in the 1920s, and survived the rigours of the Long March in the mid-1930s. Yang was elected President of the PRC in 1988 served until 1993. In 1988 Mr Yang was made state president. Yang Shangkun (5 July 1907 – 14 September 1998) was President of the People's Republic of China from 1988 to 1993, and was a powerful Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Central Military Commission under Deng Xiaoping. For an ambitious geriatric, the largely ceremonial job might have seemed a humiliation. This year, in what must be a first for the Immortals, he suddenly appeared in Hong Kong, where the chief executive entertained him rather surreptitiously at Government House.Mr Yang's request for a simple burial was ignored. Mr Yang spent 12 years in prison accused of counter-revolution.The survivors bounced back with Deng, who took power in late 1978. In May 1989 Yang appeared on Chinese television with Li, where he denounced the student demonstrations as "anarchy" and defended the imposition of martial law on several areas of Beijing affected by the protests. Deng raised Yang to the position of Vice Chairman of the In the early 1980s, Yang explicitly backed the efforts of a foreign China historian, After it became clear that Li was more successful in gaining the support of other senior CCP members, Yang changed his position, and supported Li. In retirement, he had a habit of popping up, particularly in booming Guangdong province, on unannounced “inspection” tours. The elders became the guardians not just of economic reforms, but of the party's absolute power.Deng was aware of the problem. During the student demonstrations in favour of democracy in Tiananmen Square in the summer of 1989, he persuaded China's dithering leaders to use force against the protesters. Under the orders of Deng Xiaoping, Li mobilized and planned the suppression of the demonstrators, an operation in which several hundred protesters were killed on June 4, and on subsequent days.After 1989, Yang became extremely influential within the Yang died on 14 September 1998, aged 91. Mr Yang retired from the state presidency the following year.China's purges rarely match Soviet ones for brutality. Mr Yang, if official reports are to be believed, “smiled with relief” when Mr Jiang assured him that the party had dealt effectively with the, no doubt counter-revolutionary, waters.This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline "Yang Shangkun"Sign up to our free daily newsletter, The Economist today Yang Shangkun (= 楊尚昆 , 杨尚昆 , Yáng Shàngkūn ; Contea di Tongnan, 5 luglio 1907 – Pechino, 14 settembre 1998) è stato un politico e militare cinese, presidente della Repubblica Popolare Cinese dal 1988 al 1993.
The few who did make it, and survived the battles against Japan and the Nationalists, were in line for powerful jobs in the Communist government that took power in October 1949.Anyone who outlived the subsequent purges of Mao and his acolytes must have thought themselves endowed with heaven-sent stamina. Yang Shangkun. But he still sat on the military commission. They packed the top echelons of the military with their own men. I think that at least some of this information should be re-added to the article. He married Li Bozhao in 1929, one of the few women to participate in the Long March, as did Yang. Yang Shangkun, Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping in an aircraft factory in Northeast China.jpg 640 × 456; 51 KB Yang Shangkun.jpg 400 × 533; 37 KB Yang Shangkun1936-2.jpg 500 × 400; 93 KB Even on his deathbed it seems he had his uses for the government fighting this summer's floods. Deng was deeply grateful.In the Tiananmen crackdown Mr Yang was supported by Yang Baibing, his younger half-brother (or adopted relation, no one is quite sure), who had risen in the army as a result of family influence. His official obituary described him as "a great proletarian revolutionary, a statesman, a military strategist, a staunch Marxist, an outstanding leader of the party, the state, and the people's army." Mr Yang told them that, unless they did, “the last stone in the dam” would collapse. As secretary-general of the Central Military Commission (a post he had first held three decades earlier), he forced the military to abandon its archaic role as a politicised revolutionary force, to become a modern fighting body. Yang Shangkun is almost the last to leave for paradise. Probably Mr Jiang would not be boss of China had Mr Yang not argued for military force against the students, which, as the official obituary puts it, “maintained China's independence, dignity, security and stability”. Mao Zedong is one, obviously; Deng Xiaoping is another. They can walk on water, a useful trick should they wish to visit the mainland. Yang Shangkun (3 August 1907 – 14 September 1998) was President of the People's Republic of China from 1988 to 1993, and was a powerful Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Central Military Commission under Deng Xiaoping.