中華人民共和国崩壊！

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China's ex-leader Zhao 'in coma'

China's frail former Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang has suffered a sharp deterioration in his health and could be close to death, reports say.

Mr Zhao, 85, has been under house arrest since the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989, which he was accused of sympathising with.

Sources in Hong Kong quoting relatives said he was in a deep coma, but another report said his condition was stable.

Earlier this week, the government denied reports that Mr Zhao had died.

But they did confirm that he was in hospital and described his condition as stable.

Correspondents say the Chinese leadership is worried Mr Zhao's death could spark renewed calls for reform, since many Chinese still view him as a symbol of democratic ideals.

Human rights activists in Hong Kong issued a statement quoting members of Mr Zhao's family as saying that he had fallen into a coma on Friday night.

The statement said his family had been "crying on the telephone, telling people who know him to wish him well" as he might be about to die.

'Critical'

A source close to Mr Zhao's family, contacted by Reuters news agency's Beijing bureau, quoted Mr Zhao's daughter Wang Yannan as saying he had suffered multiple strokes and was "in critical condition after emergency treatment".

However, another unnamed source told Reuters that Mr Zhao's condition had stabilised.


1989 TIANANMEN EVENTS
15 April - Reformist leader Hu Yaobang dies
22 April - Hu's memorial service, thousands call for faster reforms
13 May - Students begin hunger strike as power struggle grips Communist party
15 May - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visits China
19 May - Zhao Ziyang makes tearful appeal to students to leave
20 May - Martial law declared in Beijing
3-4 June - Security forces clear the square, killing hundreds

On Tuesday, the Chinese authorities said overseas media reports that he had died on 8 January were "totally untrue".

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told reporters: "Zhao Ziyang is an old man who is over 80. He fell ill, but after attentive treatment, his condition is currently stable."

China almost never comments on Mr Zhao, who was expected to succeed Deng Xiaoping as the country's paramount leader, until his removal from office at the height of the Tiananmen protests.

But the administration would be anxious to assure the public that he had not died. The deaths of other liberal leaders in China have tapped latent public frustration at the country's slow pace of democratic reform.

When former Premier Zhou Enlai died in 1976, and pro-reform party leader Hu Yaobang died in 1989, protesters massed in Tiananmen Square.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4177135.stm

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▲趙紫陽氏の容態悪化、意識が無いそうです。