BEIJING - Zhao Ziyang, the former Chinese Communist Party leader who helped pioneer reforms that launched China's economic boom but was ousted after the 1989 Tiananmen Square prodemocracy protests, died Monday at a Beijing hospital. He was 85.
The cause of death wasn't immediately announced, but the official announcement of Zhao's passing said he suffered from multiple ailments of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. The official Xinhua News Agency said he died "after failing to respond to all emergency treatment."
"He was very peaceful," said Frank Lu, a prominent Chinese human rights activist who said he had spoken to Zhao's daughter Wang Yannan. "He was surrounded by all his family."
Zhao had lived under house arrest for 15 years. A premature report of his death last week prompted the Chinese comment to break its long silence about him and disclose that he had been hospitalized.
Zhao, a former premier and dapper, articulate protege of the late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, helped to forge bold economic reforms in the 1980s that brought China new prosperity and flung open its doors to the outside world. In the end, he fell out of favor with Deng and was purged on June 24, 1989, after the military crushed the student-led pro-democracy protests. He was accused of "splitting the party" by supporting demonstrators who wanted a faster pace of democratic reform. Zhao had lived under house arrest since then.
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