WASHINGTON — Zhao Ziyang violated one of the central tenets of Communist Party doctrine: He spoke out. But it’s only now, four years after his death, that the world is hearing what he had to say.
In a long-secret memoir to be published in English and Chinese next week, just in time for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party claims that the decision to impose martial law around Beijing in May 1989 was illegal and that the party’s leaders could easily have negotiated a peaceful solution to the unrest.
The posthumous appearance of Zhao’s memoir, which he dictated onto audiotapes and the publisher has titled “Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang,” marks the first time since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China 60 years ago that a senior Chinese leader has spoken out so directly against the party and its system.
Zhao pillories a conservative wing of the party for missteps that led to the crackdown, which began after dark on June 3, 1989, and left hundreds dead. Few in China’s leadership then escape Zhao’s criticism. He castigates Deng Xiaoping, the man credited with opening China to the West and launching its economic reforms; Li Peng, the dour premier at the time of the Tiananmen tragedy; Deng Liqun, a hard-line party theoretician; Li Xiannian, a former vice president; and even Hu Yaobang, Zhao’s longtime ally, whose death on April 15, 1989, touched off the student-led protests.
