Li Peng, China’s Tiananmen era PM, dies at 91

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ Former Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng, infamous for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, has died, China”s state media announced on Tuesday. Li, 91, passed away on Monday in Beijing from an unspecified illness.

He served in several top positions in China in the 1980s and 1990s and was the Premier between 1987 and 1998. But he was best known as the “Butcher of Beijing” for his role in the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters during which he ordered the military to forcibly clear them with approval from then President Deng Xiaoping.

The subsequent crackdown led to an unknown number of deaths, although some sources have put the figure at over 1,000. He later defended his actions as a “necessary” step. It is said that Li strongly supported ending the civil protests by any means, considering them a serious threat to the survival of the regime.