The funeral ceremony for Zhong Pezhang, a former director of the Information Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department, who was considered a liberal within the Communist Party, died on Feb. 6 at the age of 96, was held yesterday morning (Feb. 10) at Beijing‘s Babaoshan Funeral Hall. Xi Jinping‘s mother Qi Xin and brother Xi Yuanping, former Politburo Standing Committee member Hu Qili and his wife, former Vice President Li Yuanchao, and Bao Tong, secretary of the late former Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, sent wreaths. The sending of wreaths by Xi’s Family and dissident Bao Tong at the same venue has drawn attention.
According to Radio Television Hong Kong, the funeral ceremony for Zhong Pezhang’s body began at 9 a.m. yesterday and was attended by nearly 200 people, with wreaths laid by Qi Xin and Hu Qili’s couple.
It is reported that retired leaders at the level of Politburo member or above send wreaths to the deceased, according to the rules of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which must be reported; Bao Tong, a dissident who stepped down after the June 4 Incident and was sentenced to seven years in prison, was present at the same ceremony with Xi’s mother and other retired politicians, a rare situation.
According to public information, Zhong Peizhang, born in Shanghai in 1924, was reappointed by Hu Yaobang, then secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, as deputy editor-in-chief and vice president of the Communist Youth League’s organ, China Youth Daily, in the 1950s. In 1985, he was transferred to the Hong Kong branch of the Xinhua News Agency as a senior researcher and retired a year later.
In December 2001, Zhong Peizhang participated in a meeting with Jiang Zemin, the then leader of the Chinese Communist Party, in Zhongnanhai to advocate for a democratic and constitutional government and freedom of thought for the Chinese people. But Jiang apparently ignored it.
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