As the crackdown following those heady weeks of free expression and assembly came to its apocalyptic end on the night of June 3-4, Zhao vanished, sucked down the Party’s memory hole into which so many other leaders have vanished since China’s “socialist liberation.” To the discredit of the democratic world, hardly any head of state remonstrated on Zhao’s behalf, minimally demanding that some accounting be made for his illegal and immoral incarceration.
人们在言论和集会自由方面的猛烈行动持续了几个星期，随着6月3－4日晚的镇压最终结束，赵紫阳也就此消失，被吸入了中国“社会主义解放”以来曾让无数领导人踪迹全无的党的记忆空洞之中。令民主世界蒙羞的是，几乎没有国家领导人出面替赵紫阳说话，至少要求对这种非法、不道德的封杀行动做出解释。相反，赵紫阳一直处在一种假死状态，被软禁在自己的宅邸，就像那些没有复苏希望的被冷冻的名人一样，很快就被人们遗忘了。