Editing Zhao Ziyang (section)

==Early career==
[[File:Zhao ziyang and Maozedong.jpg|thumb|left|Zhao (top left) pictured with [[Mao Zedong]] in Wuhan, January 1966]]
Zhao was born in 1919<ref name=":Chatwin">{{Cite book |last=Chatwin |first=Jonathan |title=The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's Future |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |year=2024 |isbn=9781350435711}}</ref>{{Rp|page=8}} as Zhao Xiuye ({{zh|s=|t=趙修業|p=|c=}}), but changed his given name to "Ziyang" while attending middle school in [[Wuhan]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wh14.com/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=1511 |language=zh-cn |script-title=zh:武汉市第十四中学校友赵紫阳 |access-date=2 November 2012 |archive-date=12 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512113906/http://www.wh14.com/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=1511 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=趙蔚 |script-title=zh:趙紫陽傳 |year=1989 |publisher=中國新聞出版社 |pages=4–12 |script-chapter=zh:第一章 故鄉、家世和童年 |language=zh}}</ref> He was the son of a wealthy landlord in [[Hua County, Henan|Hua County]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.xzqh.org/QUHUA/41hn/0526hx.htm |script-title=zh:滑县(Hua Xian) |access-date=26 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090103190348/http://www.xzqh.org/quhua/41hn/0526hx.htm |archive-date=3 January 2009 }}</ref> [[Henan]], who was later murdered by CCP officials during a [[Chinese Land Reform|land reform movement in the early 1940s]].<ref name="independent">{{Cite web|last=Becker|first=Jasper|author-link=Jasper Becker|date=9 October 2011|title=Zhao Ziyang Obituary|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/zhao-ziyang-487131.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/zhao-ziyang-487131.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=29 June 2021|website=[[The Independent]]|language=en}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name=":Chatwin" />{{Rp|page=8}} Zhao joined the [[Communist Youth League]] in 1932,<ref name="Newrop">NewropMag. [http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/content/view/985/43/lang,english/ "China: Zhao Ziyang has died!"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111113161843/http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/content/view/985/43/lang,english/ |date=13 November 2011 }}  ''Newrop Mag''. 25 January 2005. Retrieved 10 September 2011.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=10 March 2005|title=Zhao timeline|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news2/background/china/zhao_timeline.html|access-date=13 July 2021|website=[[CBC News]]}}</ref> and became a full member of the Party in 1938.<ref name="NYT">[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/z/zhao_ziyang/index.html "Zhao Ziyang"]. ''The New York Times''. 25 January 2005. Retrieved 15 September 2011.</ref>

Unlike many Party members active in the 1930s and 1940s who later became senior Chinese leaders, Zhao joined the Party too late to have participated in the [[Long March]] of 1934–1935. He served in the [[People's Liberation Army]], which was integrated into the Republic of China's [[National Revolutionary Army]] during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], and the subsequent [[Chinese Civil War|civil war]], but his posts were largely administrative.<ref name="NYT" /> In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Zhao served as the party chief of Hua County. It was there he met his wife, Liang Boqi, who was Zhao's subordinate; the couple married in 1944.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Zuo|first=Mandy|date=26 December 2013|title=Liang Boqi, wife of China's purged ex-leader Zhao Ziyang, dies at 95|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1390083/liang-boqi-wife-chinas-purged-ex-leader-zhao-ziyang-dies-95|access-date=9 July 2021|website=[[South China Morning Post]]|language=en}}</ref> Zhao's career was not especially notable before he emerged as a Party leader in [[Guangdong]] in the early 1950s.<ref name="independent" />

Zhao rose to prominence in Guangdong from 1951,<ref name="Newrop" /> initially following a ruthless ultra-leftist, [[Tao Zhu]], who was notable for his heavy-handed efforts to force local peasants into living and working in "People's Communes". When Mao Zedong's [[Great Leap Forward]] (1958–1961) created an artificial famine, Mao publicly blamed the nation's food shortages on the greed of rich peasants, who were supposedly hiding China's huge surplus production from the government. Zhao subsequently led a local campaign aimed at torturing peasants into revealing their food supplies, which did not exist.<ref name="independent" /> On the other hand, Zhao worked with regional party officials to put in place arrangements that allowed peasants to profit from the sale of their crops. These projects were masked by ambiguous names such as "a control system for field management" to hide them from Mao, who would have forbidden the projects. According to Zhao, areas where these plans were implemented had a much lower death toll from famine.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Salisbury|first=Harrison E.|date=14 November 1987|title=Opinion {{!}} Zhao Ziyang, on Mao and China's Future|language=en-US|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/14/opinion/zhao-ziyang-on-mao-and-china-s-future.html|access-date=30 June 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> [[Jasper Becker]], however, wrote that Zhao's torture campaign during the Great Leap meant he was partially responsible for the millions of people who died from starvation and malnutrition in Guangdong between 1958 and 1961.<ref name="independent" />

Zhao's experiences during the Great Leap Forward led him to support moderate political and economic policies. In the early 1960s, Zhao obtained permission from the Communist Party's Central Committee to increase foreign trade in Guangdong, which helped Guangdong to recover from the Great Leap Forward.<ref name=":Chatwin" />{{Rp|page=8}} He supported policies of [[Deng Xiaoping]] and President [[Liu Shaoqi]]. He led efforts to re-introduce limited amounts of private agriculture and commerce, and dismantled the People's Communes.<ref name="independent" /> Zhao's methods of returning private plots to farmers and assigning production contracts to individual households were replicated in other parts of China, helping the country's agricultural sector recover.<ref name="NYT" /> After achieving senior positions in Guangdong, Zhao directed a harsh purge of cadres accused of corruption or having ties to the [[Kuomintang]].<ref name="Newrop" />

In 1965, Zhao became the Party secretary of Guangdong province.<ref name=":322">{{Cite book |last=Hammond |first=Ken |title=China's Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future |publisher=1804 Books |year=2023 |isbn=9781736850084 |location=New York, NY |pages=}}</ref>{{Rp|page=149}} He was 46 at the time that he first became Party secretary, a notably young age to hold such a prestigious position.<ref name="Prisoner" />{{Rp|xii}} Because of his moderate political orientation, Zhao was attacked by [[Red Guards]] during the [[Cultural Revolution]] (1966–1976).<ref name="independent" />

He was dismissed from all official positions in 1967, after which he was paraded through [[Guangzhou]] in a [[dunce cap]]<ref name="independent" /> and publicly denounced as "a stinking remnant of the landlord class".<ref name=":Chatwin" />{{Rp|page=8}}