I just want to point out that I don't agree with Bao Pu's assessment that Li Peng was a scapegoat. From Zhao Ziyang's memoirs it's clear that Li Peng played an active role in escalating the situation to a point where military action was seen as the only option by ordering the op-ed (in which he didn't follow Deng's orders iirc), outmanoeuvring Zhao, and overall sidelining moderates and empowering hardliners.
It's a widely shared opinion, to which I subscribe, that Li Peng used the Tiananmen student protests to gain more political power within the Party. He was opportunist and didn't care about the costs.
Moreover, Zhao refers multiple times to the fact that Li Peng had the ear of Deng, and was able to talk to him frequently in private; therefore also shaping the opinion and assessments made by Deng. Regardless of the fact that Deng took the ultimate decision (masked as a "collective decision by the Politburo" or something of the like), Li Peng was definitely not a passive enforcer of Deng, rather an active shaper of the events.
I just want to point out that I don't agree with Bao Pu's assessment that Li Peng was a scapegoat. From Zhao Ziyang's memoirs it's clear that Li Peng played an active role in escalating the situation to a point where military action was seen as the only option by ordering the op-ed (in which he didn't follow Deng's orders iirc), outmanoeuvring Zhao, and overall sidelining moderates and empowering hardliners.
It's a widely shared opinion, to which I subscribe, that Li Peng used the Tiananmen student protests to gain more political power within the Party. He was opportunist and didn't care about the costs.
Moreover, Zhao refers multiple times to the fact that Li Peng had the ear of Deng, and was able to talk to him frequently in private; therefore also shaping the opinion and assessments made by Deng. Regardless of the fact that Deng took the ultimate decision (masked as a "collective decision by the Politburo" or something of the like), Li Peng was definitely not a passive enforcer of Deng, rather an active shaper of the events.