BBC World News:

Chinese reformer Zhao Ziyang dies
Zhao had not been seen since his appeal to the 1989 protesters
China's former Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang has died, aged 85, family sources say.

He entered a deep coma after suffering multiple strokes, and died at a Beijing hospital at 0701 (2301 GMT) on Monday.

Zhao had been under house arrest since the crushing of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Security has been tightened in the square in recent days, apparently for fear that Zhao's death might spark off new reformist protests.

'Free at last'

The BBC's Louisa Lim in Beijing says Zhao pressed forward with bold economic reforms while in office.

But, she says, he will be more remembered for his political failures. Many see him as a symbol of thwarted political reform and as the conscience of the Chinese leadership for opposing the use of force against the demonstrators in 1989.

For the current government, his legacy is a dangerous one and many fear his death could spark protests from those demanding faster political change, our correspondent adds.


1989 TIANANMEN EVENTS
15 April - Reformist leader Hu Yaobang dies
22 April - Hu's memorial service, thousands call for faster reforms
13 May - Students begin hunger strike as power struggle grips Communist party
15 May - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visits China
19 May - Zhao Ziyang makes tearful appeal to students to leave
20 May - Martial law declared in Beijing
3-4 June - Security forces clear the square, killing hundreds

Have Your Say: Zhao's legacy
"He passed away peacefully this morning," Zhao's daughter Wang Yannan said in a statement.

"He is free at last."

Zhao's son Liang Fang told the Reuters news agency that "national leaders" visited Mr Zhao in hospital before his death.

It was "not convenient" to reveal their identities, Mr Liang said.

China's government initially issued only a brief statement, confirming Zhao's death.

"Comrade Zhao Ziyang died of illness in a Beijing hospital Monday. He was 85," the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"Comrade Zhao had long suffered from multiple diseases affecting his respiratory and cardiovascular systems, and had been hospitalised for medical treatment for several times.

"His conditions worsened recently, and he passed away Monday after failing to respond to all emergency treatment."

Zhao is understood to have fallen into a coma on Friday after suffering a series of strokes.

Last Tuesday the Chinese authorities said overseas media reports that he had died on 8 January were "totally untrue".

China almost never commented on Zhao, who was expected to succeed Deng Xiaoping as the country's paramount leader, until his removal from office at the height of the Tiananmen protests.

The deaths of other liberal leaders in China have tapped latent public frustration at the country's slow pace of democratic reform.

When former Premier Zhou Enlai died in 1976, and pro-reform party leader Hu Yaobang died in 1989, protesters massed in Tiananmen Square.