Editing Hu Yaobang (section)

===Death and public reactions===
In October 1987, Hu retained his membership in the CCP's Central Committee at the 13th Party Congress, and was subsequently elected a member of the new Politburo by the first plenary session of the Central Committee. On 8 April 1989, Hu suffered a heart attack while attending a Politburo meeting in [[Zhongnanhai]] to discuss education reform. Hu was rushed to the hospital, accompanied by his wife. Hu died several days later, on 15 April. He was 73 years old. Hu's last words were that he should be buried simply, without extravagance, in his hometown.<ref name="Lee315">Lee 315</ref>

In his official obituary, Hu was described as "a long-tested and staunch communist warrior, a great proletarian revolutionist and statesman, an outstanding political leader for the Chinese army".<ref name="ribao1" /> Western reporters observed that Hu's obituary was intentionally "glowing" in order to divert suspicion that the Party had mistreated him.<ref name="Kristof1" /> At the memorial service, Hu's widow Li Zhao blamed Hu's death on how harshly the party treated him, telling Deng Xiaoping "It's all because of ''you'' people!"<ref>Vogel 586</ref>

Although he had become a semi-retired official by the time of his death, and had been removed from positions of real power for his "mistakes", public pressure forced the Chinese government to give him a state funeral, attended by Party leaders. The eulogy at Hu's funeral praised his work in restoring political normality and promoting economic development after the Cultural Revolution.<ref name=brook>[[Timothy Brook (historian)|Brook]] 26–27</ref> Public mourners at Hu's funeral lined up {{convert|10|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=off}} long, a reaction which surprised China's leaders. Shortly after Hu's funeral, students in Beijing began petitioning the government to officially reverse the verdict that had led to Hu's "resignation", and to provide a more elaborate public funeral. The government then held a public memorial service for Hu in the [[Great Hall of the People]].<ref name="Lee315" />

On 22 April 1989, 50,000 students marched to Tiananmen Square to participate in Hu's memorial service, and to deliver a letter of petition to Premier [[Li Peng]].<ref>Tilly 74</ref> Many people were dissatisfied with the party's slow response and relatively subdued funerary arrangements. Public mourning began on the streets of Beijing and elsewhere. In Beijing, this was centred on the [[Monument to the People's Heroes]] in [[Tiananmen Square]]. The mourning became a public conduit for anger against perceived [[nepotism]] in the government, the unfair dismissal and early death of Hu, and the behind-the-scenes role of the "old men", officially retired leaders who nevertheless maintained quasi-legal power, such as Deng Xiaoping.<ref name=brook/> The protests eventually escalated into the [[Tiananmen Square protests of 1989]], resulted in the dismissal of more liberal [[Zhao Ziyang]] and the rise of [[Jiang Zemin]], who becomes the new paramount leader. Hu's promotion of the ideas on freedom of speech and freedom of press greatly influenced the students participating in the protests.