Obituary praises party boss for 'stability' during Tiananmen crackdown

An official Chinese obituary praised a late Communist Party city boss on Thursday for "maintaining stability" during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in a rare mention of a subject that remains taboo to this day.

Publication of the obituary of Zhang Lichang, the former party boss of the port city of Tianjin, in The People's Daily, the party's official paper, coincided with the third death anniversary of Zhao Ziyang.

Zhao was toppled as national party chief in 1989 for opposing a decision by Deng Xiaoping, then paramount leader, to send in troops to crush the student-led pro-democracy protests.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed.