ZHAO ZIYANG
China was going though a major change of economic structure and national policy, moving to a Western style, capitalist, market economy. This was led by Zhao and Deng. However there were ensconced communist, Marxist idealogues still in place in the government, and a few of them were very vocal about their negative reaction to this abandonment of socialist principles. One economists who was particularly vocal was thus warned and reprimanded by Zhao. He got the message.
Zhou, more than any other Chinese official, was responsible for the dramatic change in the Chinese economic shift from a classical socialist model to a modern market driven competitive economy.
Zhao Ziyang was a high-ranking politician in the People's Republic of China (PRC). He was the third premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, vice chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1981 to 1982, and general secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 to 1989. He was in charge of the political reforms in China from 1986, but lost power in connection with the reformative neoauthoritarianism current and his support of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
