Former Beijing Party Chief Died

Li Ximing (李锡铭), who was the Communist Party Secretary of the city of Beijing in 1989, died at the age of 82.

It was widely believed that Li Ximing, together with then mayor Chen Xitong (陈希同), had helped setting the official tune during the early stages of the 1989 movement by reporting their version of the situation the Party Central and Deng Xiaoping himself. Their city government also played a prominent role in making a closing statement on the movement after the bloody crackdown, claiming the movement as a premediated and planed conspiracy.

Both Li Ximing and Chen Xitong lost Deng Xiaoping's confidence soon after and did not play any major roles in the political scene. While Chen Xitong was later sentenced to 16 years in jail for curruption, Li Ximing maintained a low-profile and faded out of the public life.