Li Lu Appears in Fortune Report

Li Lu, one of the key leaders in the 1989 student movement, has been largely staying out of the media limelight in more recent years. He made a rare appearance in the April 27 issue of Fortune magazine in a report on Warren Buffet's investment in electric cars made in China. In the print version, the magazine also contains a box segment introducing Li Lu:

Warren Buffet may be BYD's most famous investor, but Li Lu, whose company LL Investment Partners owns 2% of BYD, has quite a story of his own. Born in China in 1966, Li Lu was raised by foster parents after his were forced into labor camps during the Cultural Revolution. As a 10-year-old, he barely survived an earthquake that killed 250,000 in the city of Tangshan. Then things got really interesting: Li Lu became a leader of the pro-democracy movement that organized protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989, appeared on China's Twenty-One Most-Wanted List, and escaped to New York, where he was embraced by the human-rights community and earned three degrees from Columbia. After stints at Allen & Co. and DLJ, he met Charlie Munger through friends and started his own investment fund; Munger, the Berkshire vice chairman, is his largest investor. Li Lu, who is not allowed to travel freely in China, politely declined to be interviewed by Fortune. When asked about Li Lu's story, BYD CEO Wang Chuan-Fu says: "That's past history. Today, Mr. Li and I share the belief that the best way to help China move forward is to make BYD a world-class company."

This Day in 1989: April 17, Students March to Tiananmen Square

After spending the entire previous day making a huge wreath, Chen Xiaoping and Wu Renhua were pleasantly surprised that their note had garnered a few hundreds of students at their University of Political Science and Law. At 1pm, April 17, 1989, they headed out of the campus toward Tiananmen Square. It was the first demonstration of 1989, also a first since the Beijing government outlawed such activities two years earlier.

They arrived in late afternoon and placed the wreath on the base of the Monument to People's Heroes. Wu Renhua placed a small bottle of Maotai as a traditional dedication to the deceased. (It was later interpreted as a protest against Deng Xiaoping as "small bottle" is a homophone of "Xiaoping" in Chinese.)


At Peking University, Wang Dan and about 40 students delivered a wrath to Hu Yaobang's residence in the afternoon. But that evening, thousands of students were milling around The Triangle when the news of the demonstration came and shocked the crowd. They could not believe the tiny University of Political Science and Law could have gone ahead of Peking University, the traditional school in leading student movements.

In the darkness, they grabbed a giant banner, dedicated to Hu Yaobang as "China's Soul," and organized a march of their own. Wang Dan and his friends from the Democracy Salon were among the leaders.

They arrived at Tiananmen Square around midnight. The place was empty and quiet. The Monument to People's Heroes was now decorated with quite a bit of flowers and wreaths, including the giant one from University of Political Science and Law. Guo Haifeng climbed up the base of the Monument and placed the "China's Soul" banner in the middle.

Fearing that the dedications could be removed by the authorities during the night as it had happened during the April Fifth Movement in 1976, the Peking University students decided to stay the night in the Square to guard the wreaths.


Days of 1989

This Day in 1989: April 16

The news of Hu Yaobang's death was slowly sinking in on April 16, 1989. Spontaneous memorial banners, flowers, and Big Posters were appearing in college campuses all over the country. Dozens of small flowers and wreaths also showed up at the Monument to People's Heroes at Tiananmen Square. There were not yet organized activities.

There were many rumors. Most centered on the theme that Hu Yaobang suffered a heart attack because the continued criticisms he was receiving during recent politburo meetings. Although baseless and most likely to be false, the rumors were wide spread and casting Hu Yaobang as the victim of other leaders such as Li Peng and Deng Xiaoping.

Among the banners, the most eye-catching was one that proclaimed, "The one who should have died did not; the one who should not have died did!" The quotation was attributed to Bing Xin, a famous author who was almost ninety years old. She was referring to her own advanced age while mourning for the death of the younger Hu Yaobang.

Yet the message immediately took on a new meaning in the public. "The one who should have died" was taken to refer to Deng Xiaoping, the old man who had wronged Hu Yaobang more than two years ago.

Meanwhile, a group of young teachers at the University of Political Science and Law were spending the day preparing for a giant wreath. This was the idea of Wu Renhua, who had graduated from Peking University. After almost an entire day of work, the wreath came to be almost seven feet in diameter and covered with paper flowers and banners. They placed the wreath at the center of the campus with an unsigned note announcing that the wreath would be delivered to Tiananmen Square at one o'clock next afternoon.

Wu Renhua did not know how many, if any, students from that conservative campus would join him.


Days of 1989

Days of 1989: A Chronology

Recounting the days of 1989, one day at a time

July

1. July 14, 1989

June

1. June 5, 1989
2. June 4, 1989
3. June 3, 1989
4. June 2, 1989
5. June 1, 1989

May

1. May 31, 1989
2. May 30, 1989
3. May 29, 1989
4. May 28, 1989
5. May 27, 1989
6. May 26, 1989
7. May 25, 1989
8. May 24, 1989
9. May 23, 1989
10. May 22, 1989
11. May 21, 1989
12. May 20, 1989
13. May 19, 1989
14. May 18, 1989
15. May 17, 1989
16. May 16, 1989
17. May 15, 1989
18. May 14, 1989
19. May 13, 1989
20. May 12, 1989
21. May 11, 1989
22. May 10, 1989
23. May 9, 1989
24. May 8, 1989
25. May 7, 1989
26. May 6, 1989
27. May 5, 1989
28. May 4, 1989
29. May 3, 1989
30. May 2, 1989
31. May 1, 1989

April

1. April 30, 1989
2. April 29, 1989
3. April 28, 1989
4. April 27, 1989
5. April 26, 1989
6. April 25, 1989
7. April 24, 1989
8. April 23, 1989
9. April 22, 1989
10. April 21, 1989
11. April 20, 1989
12. April 19, 1989
13. April 18, 1989
14. April 17, 1989
15. April 16, 1989
16. April 15, 1989

February

• February 26, 1989: Fang Lizhi was prevented from attending Bush's banquet
• February 13, 1989: 33 Writers cosigned an open letter supporting Fang Lizhi

January

• January 6, 1989: Fang Lizhi wrote a letter to Deng Xiaoping

This Day in 1989: April 15, Hu Yaobang is Dead

Former General Secretary Hu Yaobang passed away at 7:53 in the morning of April 15, 1989. The news was officially broadcast to the nation in the evening news hour, accompanied by the usual funeral music and superlative praises for his life's work. Although he had been disposed a couple of years earlier, the official obituary still referred to him as "a loyal Communist soldier who had withstood many tests, a great proletarian revolutionary and politician, an outstanding political worker in the Chinese army, a marvelous leader who had held important Party leadership positions for many years." -- although it did omit the highest praise of "a great Marxist."

The news had already been leaked out throughout the day. There were immediate, but tentative, reactions in some of the college campuses. In the afternoon, Big Posters and banners started to show up in public places in, at least, Peking University, People's University, and Tsinghua University. Some people were observed as delivering wreaths to the residence of Hu Yaobang.

In that evening, as the news was officially confirmed, the first sign of memorial at Tiananmen Square appeared. It was a small white flower at the base of the Monument to People's Heroes, reportedly placed by a soldier. The number of Big Posters at the Triangle of Peking University ballooned to close to 100. Hundreds of students started to gather there in their usual mode of discussion when there was a significant news.


April 15 was also the birthday of Chai Ling. Her husband Feng Congde bought a cake for the occasion. They watched the news but did not think too much of it other than, like most students, feeling sorry for Hu Yaobang who was known for losing his job trying to protect students involved in previous student movements.

Wang Dan was at home when he got the news around noon. Anticipating something was going to happen, he rode his bike to Peking University in the afternoon. That evening, he was interviewed by the New York Times at the Triangle in the school.


The U. S. Ambassador Winston Lord was scheduled to finish his tour in China. His wife Bettie Bao Lord invited many prominent intellectuals for a farewell party in their residence that night. News of Hu Yaobang's death was whispered from person to person. The author Lao Gui and Dai Qing briefly exchanged views. Both of them were thinking of the possibility of a repeat of April 5, 1976.


Days of 1989

People of 1989: Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦)

Not many people knew his name when he first emerged in the national scene in 1981, being appointed as the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party after Deng Xiaoping successfully purged the last remaining Maoist factions. Hu Yaobang's most remarkable feature was his height. He was even shorter than the diminutive Deng Xiaoping himself, leading to murmured jokes about Deng Xiaoping's selection process.

Hu Yaobang quickly showed that he was quite a character of his own. Before ascending to the top of the national power, in paper anyway, he had worked diligently on behalf of Deng Xiaoping's efforts. In charge of the Party's personnel matters, he had spearheaded the campaign to rectify the millions of cases in which people were wronged during the Cultural Revolution, collecting valuable political capital along the way. There were many anectodal evidence that he had some personal involvement in the grass-root Democracy Wall Movement.

Yet he was still best known for his work on the youth front. Having joined the Communist Party as a teenager, Hu Yaobang had always been in charge of the younger generation during the revolutionary years. It was during the years when he served as the head of the Communist Youth League that he built up a solid power base.

After the post of the Party Chairman was abolished in 1982, Hu Yaobang continued to serve as the nominal head of the Party as its General Secretary. He was responsible in dealing with the many ideological ambiguities that were arising from the great reform and generally kept an open mind. Indeed, his willingness to challenge both the authordox and the tradition often surprised most people. He advocated the abolishment of the "Mao Suit" and replaced it with western jacket and necktie as the official attire. He encouraged the youth to enjoy social dancing, albeit within the confine of officially approved dancing forms. He suggested the nation to give up eating with chopsticks. But above all, he publicly stated that Marxism did not have all the answers.

Hu Yaobang's open-mindedness was seriously challenged during the 1980s as student movements started to emerge as a potent force for social change. He consistently maintained a policy of leniency toward the student trouble-makers, even though a movement during the fall of 1985 was perceived to be against him personally. It was the wide-spread student protests near the end of 1986 that finally did him in. He was forced to resign in January, 1987, for having failed to uphold Deng Xiaoping's famous Four Cardinal Principles.

Hu Yaobang lingered on in the Politiburo for a couple of more years although his portfolio was diminished. By the spring of 1989, he was already a forgotten man. His death on April 15, 1989, however, awakened tremendous emotions within college students, who felt guilty for his fate. Within days, spontaneous marches in his honor appeared in the streets of Beijing and the magnificent movement of 1989 was underway.

Because of his short statue, Hu Yaobang's feet could not touch ground when he sat in the chairs to deliver his enthusiastic speeches. He would always punches the air with his fist while his feet dangled. This cartoonish figure was often ridiculed as unfitting for an elder statesman. But Hu Yaobang would always remembered as a "young leader", despite the fact that he was already seventy-three years old when he died. His energy, kindness, and high-spirit masked his true age and, in the end, made him the rare annoying but endearing personality to college students and the populace at large.



People of 1989

Associated Press Reports on Tiananmen Survivor

The media countdown to the twentieth anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre has unofficially started as the Associated Press features a survivor telling his story. Qi Zhiyong (齐志勇), who lost a leg near Chang'an Avenue during the night of the massacre has been telling his story for all these years. In fact, he once turned down a sizable amount of money from the government when he learned that the money came with the condition for his silence.

Five years ago, at the fifteenth anniversary, Qi Zhiyong was also profiled by BBC News.