ABSTRACT
The Politburo compared the relative merits of Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang, and Yao Yilin, all three of whom belonged to the generation of the sixty-year-olds. After the Communist Party took power in 1949, Mao brought Chen Yun from the Northeast to Beijing to the Central Committee, where he occupied himself with the economy. For the title of Party chairman, the choice was Hu Yaobang, who would hold this job along with that of general secretary. Chen Yun and his people had observed that since Zhao had quit his provincial responsibilities to enter the Central Committee, he had changed his line; now he insisted on centralization and the necessity of expanding the power of the premier. Such a position happened to be consistent with the Chen Yun clique's economic ideology and would become the basis of the anti-Hu Yaobang alliance: allying with Zhao to get rid of Hu.
