Asia-Pacific

From the March 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL. 48, No. 03)

China

Tiananmen Revisited

Debora Kuan
World Press Review assistant editor

Smuggled out of China, translated, and edited in secret, the recently published Tiananmen Papers afforded the world the first look into the June 4, 1989, crackdown in Beijing from the perspective of Zhongnanhai, the seat of China’s ruling party and government offices.

If authentic, these internal transcripts of top-level meetings introduce a startling twist to what was previously known about the Tiananmen events: the deep divisions among the leadership during the crisis. Compiled by a reform-minded party official, the book shows that party leaders like pro-reform General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, who favored dialogue with pro-democracy activists rather than the imposition of martial law, were swiftly purged.

According to the book’s U.S. editors, China scholars Perry Link and Andrew Nathan, while Deng Xiaoping and other leading cadres are now deceased, Li Peng, National People’s Congress chairman, and President Jiang Zemin, who are still alive and in power, will no doubt be affected by the papers’ implications. For one thing, the transcripts suggest that Jiang’s rise to power was a result of his appearing “pliable and cautious” to the party elders—a detail that would undoubtedly undercut his authority.

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Dismissing the book’s authenticity, Beijing officials said, “[Jiang] recognizes that the Western media have their own ideas, but it should not be allowed to distort history,” according to a report in Hong Kong’s centrist South China Morning Post (Jan. 10). Another official implied that Zhang Liang, the pseudonym for the papers’ compiler, “could be badly in need of money,” according to Hong Kong’s independent Ming Pao (Jan. 8).

But relatives of the victims who died in the 1989 crackdown praised the new book, as did the group Tiananmen Mothers. According to reports, they believed the exposé vindicated the victims and helped their lawsuits against Li Peng, whom they hold primarily responsible for the massacre.

Former senior advisers and friends of Zhao Ziyang, the party leader most sympathetic to the students’ grievances, believe the documents are genuine. “This publicizing of the documents can help clarify the history of 1989,” Chen Yizhi told the centrist Hong Kong iMail (Jan. 8). “The disgracing of Zhao...was totally illegal.”

The liberal Taipei Times of Taiwan viewed the publication of the documents as a crucial catalyst for reform in Beijing. A Jan. 10 report said, “[The] release threatens to aggravate ever-pres-sent strains among reformist and conservative factions in the party and reawaken debate over political change.”

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