 Deng Xiaoping disliked all three leaders, and ordered Hu to dismiss them from the Party in order to silence them, but Hu Yaobang refused.In January 1987, after two weeks of student protests demanding greater Western-style freedoms, a clique of Party elders and senior military officials forced Hu to resign on the grounds that he had been too lenient with student protesters and for moving too quickly towards free market-style economic reforms.After Hu's forced dismissal, Deng Xiaoping promoted Zhao Ziyang to replace the liberal Hu as Party general secretary, putting Zhao in a position to succeed Deng as "paramount leader".