China to commemorate purged leader

China has declared plans to commemorate a purged leader whose death led to the 1989 bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square.

The move suggests that President Hu Jintao has decided to rehabilitate Hu Yaobang despite fears the shift could unleash instability.

Hu Yaobang, a liberal reformer, was forced to resign as General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1987, accused of "bourgeois tendencies".

When he died in April 1989, thousands flocked to Tiananmen Square, sparking the infamous civilian suppression.