BEIJING, May 22 — The late reformist leader Zhao Ziyang had initially declined to write his memoirs, said former senior censor Du Daozheng, who revealed yesterday that he helped smuggle the tapes out of China.
But Du said he told Zhao: ‘This is not your personal problem. You have a duty to write this...It is your historic duty to leave a record for later generations.’
Together with three other retired officials, he managed to convince Zhao to carry out a secret audio recording process during his 16 years of house arrest that ended with his death in 2005.
Du, who revealed this in a foreword to the Chinese edition of the memoirs, said that Zhao had approached the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for access to archival materials for his research.
“Zhao Ziyang had an extraordinary memory, but he was still afraid that his memory was not accurate enough,” said Du, a reformist and a former chief of the General Administration of Press and Publications in the late 1980s.
But Zhao was rebuffed, he added, a rejection which hurt him badly. The former CCP general secretary turned to old newspaper clippings instead.
Four of his trusty old subordinates, including Du, now in his late 80s, helped him record, take notes and then smuggle the information out of China.
The others are former General Secretariat vice-secretary Xiao Hongda, former Guangming Daily editor-in-chief Tao Xihua and former State Council chief secretary Du Xingyuan.
The tapes were smuggled to Hong Kong where they were converted into Zhao’s autobiography. The English version, released worldwide three days ago, is titled Prisoner Of The State: The Secret Journal Of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang.
The Chinese version, which carries Du’s foreword, is slated for release a week from now, just days before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Incident.
Du argued in his statement that it is time to rehabilitate Zhao, who was ousted from the CCP for siding with the students during the protests and opposing martial law.
“At the major historic juncture of June 4, Zhao Ziyang acted responsibly to the Chinese nation, to history and to ordinary people,” Du said.
He shared that after the 1989 protests, Zhao was approached twice by the CCP to change his position on the bloody crackdown. First, he was promised retention of his Politburo seat — the elite decision-making body of the CCP.
Later, he was told he could keep his Central Committee position, the next rung below the Politburo. In both instances, Zhao rejected the party’s offers.
Hong Kong-based human rights researcher Nicholas Bequelin said that Du highlighted his own role to encourage more people to come out and demand that the CCP reassess the Tiananmen Incident and the legacy of Zhao.
This act puts Du, who lives in Beijing, at significant personal risk as he could be harassed and even detained.
“The Tiananmen Incident is still the one issue which the CCP completely refuses to engage,” added Bequelin.
Since Zhao’s book first hit the stands, the only response from Beijing so far has been a Foreign Ministry spokesman replying to a foreign journalist’s question during a routine media briefing this week.
He stuck to the standard official answer on the incident, saying that “a clear conclusion” has been reached and that the crushing of the movement paved the way for China’s economic success in the last two decades.
“In such instances, the party would usually come out at some point to assure the cadres that they should stick unwaveringly to the party line.
“So far, we have not seen that. It seems the memoirs have taken them totally by surprise,” said Bequelin. — The Straits Times
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
