Mr. Lin Mu, secretary to the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Hu Yaobang and a famous democracy activist in China, suddenly died at his home at about 1pm on October 15. He was 79.
Although Lin was well advanced in years, he had always been healthy. His relatives and other people were caught by surprise by his death.
The Epoch Times interviewed Lin Mu’s son Lin Fang on October 15th. He said that he and his family were very sad about his father’s sudden death and also felt it came too abruptly.
Reporter: I heard Mr. Lin Mu died suddenly at noon today, could you talk about what happened?
Lin Fang: It was quite sad. His health had always been pretty good. At noon today, he did not feel comfortable, so he went to sleep at about 1pm. When my mom woke up, she found that he had passed away.
Reporter: How has Mr. Lin’s health been recently?
Lin Fang: He did not have any major diseases. Two days ago when he accepted an interview from a Beijing reporter, he was agitated when he talked about China’s current political situation. These couple of days, he felt a bit dizzy and tired, but it was not serious. So we felt his death came quite abruptly.
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Upon hearing the news of Lin’s death, former CCP General Secretary Zhao Ziyang’s daughter Wang Yannan said, “Mr. Lin Mu’s health had always been good, this news is too sudden for me. How could it be like this?”
Former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang’s subordinate Zhang Jing’s daughter Zhang Wanjia said, “Mr. Lin had always been healthy, how could he die so suddenly? This is too strange and too abrupt. It should not have happened!”
As for the cause of death, local democracy activist Ma Yizhong said, “The cause of death has not been determined. It is hard to say whether it is due to disease or some kind of persecution. His relatives do not want to pursue it, as there is no way to look into it. A healthy person died while he was asleep, it is indeed very strange”.
Democracy activist Zhang Baohe from Xi‘an City, Sha’anxi Province expressed that he was shocked by Lin Mu’s death. He could not believe it. At the end of September, staff from the Beijing Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of State Security came to Lin’s home in Xi'an, and said they were going to celebrate Lin’s birthday. Lin politely refused them. Lin had never worked for the Ministry of Public Security or the Ministry of State Security, and this led some authorities to question why they would want to celebrate his birthday.
Xi'an democracy activist Deng Yongliang said, “because many friends from across the country wanted to celebrate his birthday, the authorities were afraid that we would discuss certain things during the celebration. As there is now a crackdown on human rights protests, they are very sensitive and pay particular attention to it.”
Deng also disclosed that Lin was highly concerned about attorney Gao Zhisheng’s case before his death. He phoned Hu Jia in person to inquire about Gao’s current situation.
Xi'an rights lawyer Zhang Jiankang said that this news was too sudden and shocking.
“On October 6, I had gone to Mr. Lin’s home,” Zhang said. “He was quite healthy at the time. Lin was a very respected elder. He showed loving care for young people. His death is a big loss to China’s movement towards democratic constitutionalism. We are all deeply grieved”.
Lin Mu died at the age of 79. In 1965, he participated in the reform movement initiated by Hu Yaobang in Sha‘anxi as the deputy secretary-general of the Sha’anxi provincial party committee. He suffered 12 years of political persecution for this, and had been imprisoned twice, expelled from the CCP membership twice, and spent eight years in a labor camp. After coming out of prison, he was devoted to the democratic rights defending movement in China. He had been under house arrest by the authorities purportedly for appealing for the rescue of Attorney Gao Zhisheng.
Lin had recently published an article criticizing the CCP General Secretary Hu Jintao’s proposition for establishing a harmonious society. He pointed out that unless they give up the one-party dictatorship, this proposition could only be vain talk.
