Requiem for Reform?

The mourners came to remember a man who had embodied their hopes. Last week they filled a small courtyard in Beijing with chrysanthemum wreaths bearing ribbons of white, the Chinese color of death. One carried the inscription, "Go with an Easy Heart." The most liberal leader China's Communist Party has ever known died in seclusion on Jan. 17 after spending more than 15 years under house arrest in this modest home on Fuqiang Lane. Many ordinary Chinese remember Zhao Ziyang, who advocated political reform and opposed the Tiananmen Square massacre, as a symbol of their country's democratic aspirations. His former comrades,...