Monday Night: State Media and Chinese Method

monday night: State media listed him as 91 using the Chinese method of counting age, according to CNN. He would have been 90 in the Western calendar. Li died of an unspecified illness in Beijing on Monday night, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday. During the pro-democracy movement that swept China in the spring of 1989, Li was the face of hardline leaders who refused to negotiate with the protesters and sided with then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in ordering the military crackdown. Some of the 200,000 pro-democracy student protesters sit face to face with policemen outside the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square on April 22, 1989. context Image Object name Some of the 200,000 pro-democracy student protesters sit face to face with policemen outside the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square on April 22, 1989. description Some of the 200,000 pro-democracy student protesters sit face to face with policemen outside the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square on April 22, 1989. url Despite his controversial image, Li remained unchallenged as China's number two leader through the 1990s and into the early 2000s, second only to then-President Jiang Zemin, as the ruling Communist Party tried to present a united front. It was Li who, as Premier, declared martial law in Beijing on national television on May 20, 1989, paving the way for the Tiananmen Square massacre two weeks later, in which hundreds of people were killed. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.