Zhao Ziyang: A reformer China's Communist Party wants to forget

In a small, central Beijing courtyard, family and friends are gathering to pay tribute to Zhao Ziyang - the most powerful man in China to oppose the decision to send tanks into Tiananmen Square nearly 30 years ago. He was subsequently erased from Chinese history for what party officials deemed his "serious mistakes" that day. To reach his traditional courtyard home, mourners and journalists alike must run a gauntlet through a twisted alleyway, with groups of police and plain-clothed guards on every corner, waiting to interrogate and prevent would-be visitors.

Today, on a cold, January day, on the anniversary of Zhao's death from a stroke in 2005, numerous police vehicles flank every entrance. Parked outside the gate is an unmarked security car; the occupants monitoring arrivals and muttering into radios.

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