 General Yang Dezhi retired from his party and military posts in November 1987, together with Marshals Xu Xiangqian and Nie Rongzhen, Defense Minister Zhang Aiping and General Political Department Director Yu Qiuli.During the Tiananmen Square protests of spring 1989, Yang Dezhi joined former Minister of Defense Zhang Aiping and five other retired generals in opposing the enforcement of martial law by the Army in Beijing.There are several photos of three generals surnamed Yang, and together with their service records and official writings, it appears that Generals Yang Dezhi, Yang Yong and Yang Chengwu were particularly close comrades in arms.