Former Chinese Premier Li Peng, known as the "Butcher of Beijing" for leading the violent military crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests, died late Monday night of an "illness," state media reported on Tuesday. He was 90.

News agency Xinhua called him a "seasoned and loyal soldier of Communism, a distinguished revolutionary and statesman, and an outstanding leader of the party and country."

Li, who served as premier from 1987 to 1998, declared martial law to quell the June 1989 student-led protests. Alongside the Chairman of the Central Military Commission Deng Xiaoping, he also ordered the bloody military response that left hundreds dead.

Xinhua said that "under the strong support" of Deng, "Comrade Li Peng took a clear stand and together with most of the comrades of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, took decisive measures to stop the unrest and pacify the counter-revolutionary riots."

Although much of the responsibility for the crackdown fell to Deng, the violence also damaged Li's image on the international stage.

"He stirred up anti-protest sentiment among party veterans and with Deng Xiaoping (the country's de-facto leader) so that they would see the movement as a threat," Sarah Kirchberger, a sinologist at the University of Hamburg told DW.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Goddess of Democracy As the sun rises at Tiananmen Square, protesters build a 10-meter (33-foot) Goddess of Democracy statue out of foam and paper-mache over a metal armature. In the early morning of June 4, soldiers backed by tanks and armored cars toppled the statue, which had stood directly facing the Mao portrait at the Forbidden City.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Singing Police Woman In the often tense days leading up to the Chinese government crackdown, local citizens often gave gifts to soldiers and police officials. Sometimes troops would sing patriotic songs with demonstrators. In this picture, a policewoman sings out loud in Tiananmen Square a few days before troops retook control of the area and crushed the democratic movement.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Struggle A woman is caught in the middle of a scuffle between pro-democracy protesters and People's Liberation Army soldiers near the Great Hall of The People on June 3, 1989, the day before one of the bloodiest military crackdowns of the 20th century. Later that night, the 38th Army would open fire on unarmed civilians overtaking the occupied Tiananmen Square.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Captured weapons Thousands of protesters surround a bus with a display of captured weapons just days prior to the crackdown. During the government's enforcement of martial law, soldiers and the public performed a delicate dance of give and take. Sometimes protesters offered gifts to soldiers and sometimes troops withdrew.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Fight for democracy In the late evening of June 3, a group of protesters cornered an armored personnel carrier at the gates of the Great Hall of The People. It had just crashed through barricades of street dividers, which the crowds had put up to stop the advance of military vehicles. At the same time, soldiers were preparing to open fire on the demonstrators a short distance away.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Burning APC On the late evening of June 3, protestors set fire to an armored personnel carrier on the Chang'an Avenue near Tiananmen Square. The picture was the last image before photographer Jeff Widener was struck in the face by a stray protestor brick. Though he sustained a serious concussion, The Nikon F3 titanium camera absorbed the blow sparing his life.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Firing on crowds On June 4, a truck manned by People's Liberation Army troops patrol down the Chang'an Avenue in front of the Beijing Hotel the day after the bloody crackdown on student-led pro-democracy supporters. A similar truck full of soldiers had shot tourists standing in the lobby of the Beijing Hotel that day.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 'Tank Man' A lone man with shopping bags walks to the center of Beijing's Chang'an Avenue and temporarily stops the advance of Chinese tanks a day after the crackdown. Over two decades later, the fate of the man is still a mystery. The incident has come to symbolize the events at Tiananmen Square and is considered one of the most iconic images ever taken.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Dead heroes On June 5, a group of people at the Chang’an Avenue show a picture of protesters lying dead at a local morgue after having been shot by Chinese soldiers of the 38th Army during the recapture of Tiananmen Square. The troops used expanding bullets which created larger wounds. At least 300 civilians were killed, according to Amnesty International.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Sweepers The remains of a burned-out bus on Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue as two women sweep up debris following the massacre. The demonstrations led to widespread burning of buses and military vehicles, which left several soldiers dead or injured.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Guarding Mao Soldiers and a tank stand guard in front of the Forbidden City and across from the occupied Tiananmen Square a few days after the riots.

Remembering Tiananmen Square, 1989 Brothers in arms Associated Press photographers Jeff Widener (left) and Liu Heung Shing pose in front of Beijing's Forbidden City in late May 1989 just days before the Chinese government's military crackdown at Tiananmen Square.



Hardline leader

Born on October 20, 1928 in the southwestern province of Sichuan, Li was left orphaned at the age of three when his father Li Shuoxun, an early Communist revolutionary, was captured and killed by the nationalist party Kuomintang.

He joined the Communist Party in 1945 at the age of 17 and later went on to study hydroelectric engineering in Moscow, where he was Chairman of the Chinese Students Association in the Soviet Union.

He returned to China in 1955 after the Communist Revolution and was intricately involved in a number of major power projects until 1979.

Throughout the 1980s, Li rose through Communist party ranks, taking on a number of roles including Minister of Power and being elected to the Politburo before becoming a member of the powerful Standing Committee leadership body in 1987.

He championed the Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze River and oversaw groundbreaking of the dam in 1994. The project was a massive feat of engineering that became part of his legacy — but also forced 1.3 million people to leave their homes due to the dam's massive reservoir.

During much of the 1990s, Li was the second highest ranking Communist Party official after its chairman and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

From 1998 to 2003, Li was chairman of the Chinese legislature, the National People's Congress.

DW's Christoph Ricking contributed reporting.

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