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Former Chinese Premier Li Peng, the 'Butcher of Beijing,' Dies
2019-07-23
Former hard-line Chinese premier Li Peng is shown in a 2017 file photo.
Former Chinese premier Li Peng, who gained international notoriety in 1989 as the "Butcher of Beijing," has died at the age of 90, state media reported on Tuesday.
"Li Peng, former chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, died of illness in Beijing at the age of 91 at 11:11 p.m. Monday," Xinhua news agency reported, apparently using the Chinese convention for calculating a person as one year older at each new year, rather than at their actual birthday. Li was born on Oct. 20, 1928.
His death came just weeks after the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre by the People's Liberation Army that ended weeks of peaceful student-led protests in the spring and early summer of 1989 and left an unknown number of unarmed civilians killed, maimed, or injured.
Read more at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/premier-07232019111132.html
Usually, this is just for the obits, but there is a bit more to the story, I've heard
Jiang Zemin is the one responsible for the bloody Tiananmen Square crack down but...
Li Peng served under him.... so some research for whomever is interest.
Surely both have great responsibility in the repressions there at that time. Really a question for history buffs.
More to the story, these people were pivotal per Tiananmen. Actually, ran into a Chinese person online defending the regime. Well, they do know much more than I do. He was arguing that what is called the Tiananmen Square massacre happened more in an adjacent area.
Whole history books are written on this kind of stuff. We get a few blurbs from the media and are experts? Thank goodness, a lady was able to take him up on the argument some.
Plus, depending on... the other guy could have been repressive about some other thing.
