In a surprising move President Hu Jintao has agreed to rehabilitate the status of Hu Yaobang, the former party chief whose death lead to the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests that ended with PLA troops brutally crushing thousands of students.

BEIJING — Chinese President Hu Jintao has agreed to restore the standing of the reform-minded Communist leader whose death triggered the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, a surprising reversal of party dogma that could prompt new calls for democratic change in China, according to people informed of the decision.

….The sources said there were no plans to change the party’s position that the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests were subversive, or to admit it was wrong to use troops to crush them. But the decision to rehabilitate Hu Yaobang, whom the party condemned for being too tolerant of "bourgeois" political views when it removed him from power, suggested such reversal might be possible in the future.

"This might be a first step, a small but important one," said one informed party member, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If the party can change its position on Hu Yaobang, it can change its position on June 4 and on political reform."

Cross posted on The Horse’s Mouth