The World - News from April 17, 1989

While an official of China’s propaganda department said the party will probably publish its official judgment on the late Hu Yaobang next weekend, Chinese students continued to heap praise on the former Communist Party leader. Hu, 73, the party chief for 4 1/2 years until his dismissal in January, 1987, died of a heart attack Saturday, provoking an outpouring of grief from the young and the intelligentsia. Hu’s policies of greater democracy and freedom of expression led to his dismissal. China’s official People’s Daily printed Hu’s photograph and a brief obituary on its front page, calling him “a great proletarian revolutionary and politician.” It did not mention his dismissal.