The definitive story of a top Chinese politician's ill-fated quest to reform the Communist Party.

When Hu Yaobang died in April 1989, throngs of mourners converged on the Martyrs' Monument in Tiananmen Square to pay their respects. Following Hu's 1987 ouster by party elders, Chinese propaganda officials had sought to tarnish his reputation and dim his memory, yet his death galvanized the nascent pro-democracy student movement, setting off the dramatic demonstrations that culminated in the Tiananmen massacre.

The Conscience of the Party is the comprehensive, authoritative biography of the Chinese Communist Party's most avid reformer and its general secretary for a key stretch of the 1980s. A supremely intelligent leader with an exceptional populist touch, Hu Yaobang was tapped early by Mao Zedong as a capable party hand. But Hu's principled ideas made him powerful enemies, and during the Cultural Revolution he was purged, brutally beaten, and consigned to forced labor. After Mao's death, Hu rose again as an ally of Deng Xiaoping, eventually securing the party's top position. In that role, he pioneered many of the economic reforms subsequently attributed to Deng. But Hu also pursued political reforms with equal vigor, pushing for more freedom of expression, the end of lifetime tenure for CCP leaders, and the dismantling of Mao's personality cult. Alarmed by Hu's growing popularity and increasingly radical agenda, Deng had him purged again in 1987.

Historian and former intelligence analyst Robert L. Suettinger meticulously reconstructs Hu's life, providing the kind of eye-opening account that remains impossible in China under state censorship. Hu Yaobang, a decent man operating in a system that did not always reward decency, suffered for his principles but inspired millions in the process.

About the Author
Robert L. Suettinger is a historian with more than forty-five years of experience studying Chinese politics. Formerly an intelligence analyst and manager for the CIA and the US State Department, he was Director of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. He is the author of Beyond Tiananmen: The Politics of U.S.-China Relations, 1989-2000.

Reviews
A beautifully balanced, poignant, deeply documented, scrupulously pondered biography...[no other major biography of China's modern leaders] is so probing or so emancipating of the mind of the reader...this book must be read. -- Paul Monk * The Australian *
Suettinger's biography is a pathbreaking account of Hu, prodigiously and thoughtfully exploring what kind of person he was and how he emerged as a leader with reformist aspirations in a world of apparatchiks...The result is a remarkably nuanced work that not only depicts Hu as a courageous and thoughtful reformist leader but also illuminates an important turning point in China's recent history. -- Chen Jian * Foreign Affairs *
An insightful and balanced biography of Hu Yaobang, one of the most remarkable Chinese leaders of the post-Mao era. Suettinger offers convincing evidence crediting Hu with key breakthroughs in China's reform and opening. -- Minxin Pei, author of The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China
A must-read for anyone who wants to understand China. Suettinger painstakingly reconstructs the life of Hu against the backdrop of seventy years of turmoil: wars, class struggles, purges, starvation, and fanatic mob violence. In doing so, he treats his subject not as a glorified hero but as a person with feelings-a romantic, humanistic figure, who nonetheless remained loyal to a party known for its ruthlessness. This a much-needed and welcome contribution. -- Shaomin Li, author of The Rise of China, Inc.: How the Chinese Communist Party Transformed China into a Giant Corporation
A committed revolutionary, Hu Yaobang joined the Red Army at age fifteen, spent decades following Mao Zedong, and in 1980 was named general secretary of the CCP. In this thoroughly researched and illuminating book, Suettinger shows how Hu nevertheless became the 'conscience of the party,' overseeing the rehabilitation of thousands of cadres. This was a story that did not have to culminate in tragedy. -- Joseph Fewsmith, author of Forging Leninism in China: Mao and the Remaking of the Chinese Communist Party, 1927-1934
With all the suspense of a great detective novel, Suettinger brings to life the personal qualities, brutal backroom politics, and seminal events that shaped former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang's more than half-century journey from Mao acolyte to lead architect of China's dramatic 1980s reforms. It is a masterful accounting of party history through Hu's rise and ultimate demise and a potent reminder to today's China watchers of the importance of individual leaders in shaping the country's future. -- Elizabeth C. Economy, author of The World According to China


Awards
Long-listed for Baifang Schell China Books Prize 2025 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9780674272804
Author Robert L. Suettinger
Format Hardback
Page Count 488
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press
Weight(grams) 914g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 35mm