Editing Hu Jintao (section)

===Tenure in Tibet===
Hu Yaobang was purged by Deng Xiaoping in 1987 due to his 'liberal' tendencies, and his departure from the political scene was initially seen as unfavourable towards Hu Jintao, who drew criticism from party elders for failing to criticize the ousted reformer.<ref>Lam, 8</ref> In 1988, Hu Jintao was transferred to become Party Regional Committee secretary of the [[Tibet Autonomous Region]], while also taking on the role of [[Political commissar]] of the local [[People's Liberation Army]] units. This made Hu effectively the number-one figure in the vast, restive region. A number of Tibetans have long been opposed to government policy in the region. Unrest and ethnic conflict were brewing, particularly anti-[[Han Chinese|Han]] sentiments among segments of ethnic Tibetan society. Minor clashes had been occurring since 1987, and when the scale of unrest grew, Hu responded with the deployment of some 1,700 [[People's Armed Police]] into Lhasa in February 1989 in an attempt to warn against further disturbance.<ref name="jt">{{cite web|last=Tkacik|first=John|title=Who's Hu? Assessing China's Heir Apparent: Hu Jintao|url=http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/Whos-Hu#pgfId=1010147|publisher=The Heritage Foundation|date=29 April 2002|access-date=2 June 2010|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615195945/http://heritage.org/Research/Lecture/Whos-Hu#pgfId=1010147|archive-date=15 June 2010}}</ref> [[1987–1989 Tibetan unrest|Increased clashes]] culminated in serious rioting in [[Lhasa]]'s core on 5 March 1989, five days before the 30th anniversary of the [[1959 Tibetan uprising]].<ref>Lam, 9</ref> What occurred after is a matter of dispute. Rioters accused the police of shooting them arbitrarily, and the police claimed that they had acted in self-defense. In addition, there was speculation that Hu delayed his orders to clamp down on the protesters until late into the evening, when the police chief was forced to act because the situation was spiraling out of control. The protesters were suppressed early into the next day, and Hu asked Beijing to declare [[martial law]] on 8 March.<ref name="Lam, p. 9">Lam, p. 9</ref>

Hu's role in the demonstrations and rioting on 5 March was never made clear. While it is general protocol that Hu must have at least implicitly approved the use of force against protesters, whether he actually gave orders throughout 5 March is a matter of debate.{{efn|[[Willy Lam]] accounts for Hu's actions on 5 March 1989 as a possible example of his high-level political cunning and shrewdness.<ref name="Lam, p. 9">Lam, p. 9</ref>}} In addition, John Tkacik cites that Hu had been coordinating with the [[Chengdu Military Region]] for troops to be on full alert as the situation progressed.<ref name=jt/> Some diplomatic analysts linked what they saw as Hu's brutal use of force to the suppression of activists and students in [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre|Tiananmen Square]], which took place three months later. Whether Hu provided "inspiration" for the PLA on 4 June is a matter of debate, but it was clear that Hu's actions in Lhasa earned him unprecedented attention in the upper echelons of party power, including by "paramount leader" Deng Xiaoping.<ref name="Ewing, 2003" /> When tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square, Hu was one of the first regional leaders to publicly declare his support for the central authorities.<ref name=jt/>

Hu experienced high-altitude sickness in June 1990, and returned to Beijing, but remained in his position for another two years, during which he achieved little. His departure to Beijing was seen, however, simply as a pretext to return to the center of Chinese politics, which led to some doubts as to whether or not he was as ill as he had claimed.<ref name=jt/> Martin Seiff of United Press International commented on Putin and Hu: "Both are tough and able authoritarians who had extensive experience of repressing dissent on their rise to the top."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Chinese politics in the Hu Jintao era : new leaders, new challenges|last=Wo-Lap.|first=Lam, Willy|date=2006|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=9780765617743|location=Armonk, N.Y.|pages=31|oclc=608483173|quote=QUOTE:   "Both are tough and able authoritarians who had extensive experience of repressing dissent on their rise to the top."}}</ref>