The late Chinese Communist Party leader known for his sympathy toward China's student protesters in 1989 was finally allowed to have his tomb " 14 years after his death.
Former Communist Party general secretary Zhao Ziyang, who in 1989 opposed a military crackdown on the protests, was buried together with his wife on the outskirts of Beijing on Friday, a day after the 100th anniversary of Zhao's birth.
Friday's ceremony followed long, drawn-out negotiations between Zhao's family and the party leadership over a burial site for the former leader, according to one of his sons, Zhao Erjun.
Zhao was one of the leaders who pioneered China's economic reforms, but his name is closely associated with the 1989 protests. Mentions of him and other figures supporting the protests remain a taboo subject in any public discussion.
He was the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party when the pro-democracy movement erupted in April 1989.
He made his last public appearance on May 19, 1989, when he visited students who had gone on a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Following the crackdown on June 4, Zhao was purged by paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and party conservatives for "splitting the party" and sympathizing with the pro-democracy student protesters.
He spent the rest of his life under virtual house arrest until his death in 2005 aged 85.
The ashes of Zhao and Liang were buried in a cemetery about 37 miles from downtown Beijing, where the graves of some prominent intellectuals and artists are located. The ceremony was attended by dozens of family members and friends.
The modest headstone " engraved with black characters rather than the common red and gold for party officials " reveals little about Zhao and Liang beyond their names, with no reference to the prominent positions Zhao held.
Communist Party officials have for years refused to grant a burial site for Zhao. And the couple's ashes had been kept at the family home in Beijing.
The house has been a popular place to visit for retired officials, intellectuals and dissidents, especially on the anniversaries of Zhao's birth and death, under the close watch of the police.
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