Hu Yaobang was a founder of the China Youth League, regarded as a relatively liberal institution in the People’s Republic, who in the 1980’s promoted political reforms and rehabilitated virtually all the victims of the Mao Zedong’s purges. By contrast, the younger Hu has narrowed the public space for political discourse that had opened up during the latter years of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, when market pressure was forcing media outlets to be more daring and wide-ranging.