ABSTRACT
In 1993, Zhao Ziyang, who had been under house arrest since the 1989 prodemocracy movement in Beijing, made the following comments about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) when he talked about China’s gerontocracy:
It seems that a country as big as China needs to be led by strongmen and authoritative persons. This is determined by the fact that China is such a vast country in terms of its territory and geography, with its uneven development and its backwardness in economic and cultural development. It is also true from the perspective of the development of China’s society and history. Currently, China is a gerontocracy, and ruled by political elders. This is the reality that was formed in the process of China’s lengthy revolutionary struggles. It was under their leadership that China won the revolution and People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established. Naturally, they want to rule the country. They are not replaceable. Like imperial rule in [traditional] dynasties, the emperor himself should rule the country that he had conquered; and afterwards [after the death of the old emperor], the country should be ruled by the emperor’s family, and others could not share the power. In brief, as in a family, the head of the family naturally became the decision-maker since he created and built up the family properties. This is China’s political characteristic.1
