Not so Immortal

Bo Yibo, last of the Eight Immortals of the Communist Party, has shuffled off his mortal coil. Bo Yibo is one of the very last of the Long March generation, which ascended to power in China at a relatively young age and held onto it until the 1990s. Bo Yibo was a political conservative, and spoke out in defense of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. However, like many of his generation, he cooperated in the process of economic reform in China upon the ascension of Deng Xiaoping.

I had him on my death list for 2006, but not for 2007. Since Chinese New Year isn’t until February 18, I’m going to count him in the plus column.