BEIJING, Jan 17: Zhao Ziyang, a Chinese reformist toppled as Communist Party chief in 1989 for opposing a crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy protests, died in hospital on Monday, his family said. He was 85.

The one-time heir-apparent to Deng Xiaoping, his long party career defined by his tearful pleading with student protesters in the square, spent his last 15 years confined to house arrest by successors fearing his residual influence as an icon of reform.

"He is free at last," Zhao's daughter, Wang Yannan, said in a statement. Her father died in a coma at a Beijing hospital after a series of strokes. He spent the final years of his life sequestered behind the red doors of a courtyard home in central Beijing, emerging only for brief visits to the provinces or to the golf course. Unmarked cars and police were ever-present on the street outside.

The long years of house arrest were "a showcase of shame for Chinese justice and for the Chinese Communist Party itself", Mr Zhao's former aide, Bao Tong, wrote. Mr Bao himself was jailed for seven years in 1989 and remains under close surveillance.

Mr Zhao was accused of splitting the party after opposing the decision of Deng Xiaoping, then China's paramount leader, to act against the Tiananmen protesters. He remained a politically sensitive figure amid government fears that his death could spark protests.

On Monday, a mere scattering of tourists, Beijing residents and guards walked in the vast wintry expanse of Tiananmen Square. Irish flags flew to mark a visit by Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.

The successors of a man linked with pushing economic reforms in the early 1980s fear his death could serve as a rallying point for reformers, for workers bitter at high unemployment and for poor farmers envious of wealthy urban residents.

He was never again seen in public after May 19, 1989, when he went to the square and urged student demonstrators to leave. The next day the government declared martial law and the army, backed by tanks, crushed the protests on June 3 and 4.

Zhao Ziyang, a farming expert and the son of a landlord, was sacked as party general secretary. Jiang Zemin took his place, ruling for more than a decade before handing over to Hu Jintao in 2002.

China's political and economic landscape has been transformed since 1989, and after years hidden from public view, Mr Zhao remains largely an enigma for younger Chinese.

"The leadership will take precautions anyway, with stepped-up security and surveillance - they always do," said Kenneth Lieberthal, a China expert at the University of Michigan. "But will this be a spark for another protest movement? I have no idea. But I would doubt that it would," he said.

NOTHING TO CHANCE: While Mr Zhao's reforms helped give birth to a new middle class, social pressures provided the potential for unrest. "That was a time the regime was in deep trouble. Now it seems the regime is rather well consolidated," said Andrew Nathan, a China expert at Columbia University.