Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang |  | Author: Zhao Ziyang
Creators: Bao Pu, Renee Chiang, Adi Ignatius
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Media: Hardcover
Pages: 336
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Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 1439149380
Dewey Decimal Number: 951.058092
EAN: 9781439149386
ASIN: 1439149380
Publication Date: May 19, 2009
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Product Description
“Zhao may be more dangerous in death than he was in life.” —Time How often can you peek behind the curtains of one of the most secretive governments in the world? Prisoner of the State is the first book to give readers a front row seat to the secret inner workings of China’s government. It is the story of Premier Zhao Ziyang, the man who brought liberal change to that nation and who, at the height of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, tried to stop the massacre and was dethroned for his efforts. When China’s army moved in, killing hundreds of students and other demonstrators, Zhao was placed under house arrest at his home on a quiet alley in Beijing. China’s most promising change agent had been disgraced, along with the policies he stood for. The premier spent the last sixteen years of his life, up until his death in 2005, in seclusion. An occasional detail about his life would slip out: reports of a golf excursion, a photo of his aging visage, a leaked letter to China’s leaders. But China scholars often lamented that Zhao never had his final say. As it turns out, Zhao did produce a memoir in complete secrecy. He methodically recorded his thoughts and recollections on what had happened behind the scenes during many of modern China’s most critical moments. The tapes he produced were smuggled out of the country and form the basis for Prisoner of the State. In this audio journal, Zhao provides intimate details about the Tiananmen crackdown; he describes the ploys and double crosses China's top leaders use to gain advantage over one another; and he talks of the necessity for China to adopt democracy in order to achieve long-term stability. The China that Zhao portrays is not some long-lost dynasty. It is today’s China, where the nation’s leaders accept economic freedom but continue to resist political change. If Zhao had survived—that is, if the hard-line hadn’t prevailed during Tiananmen—he might have been able to steer China’s political system toward more openness and tolerance. Zhao’s call to begin lifting the Party's control over China's life—to let a little freedom into the public square—is remarkable coming from a man who had once dominated that square. Although Zhao now speaks from the grave in this moving and riveting memoir, his voice has the moral power to make China sit up and listen. BAO PU, a political commentator and veteran human rights activist, is a publisher and editor of New Century Press in Hong Kong. RENEE CHIANG is a publisher and the English editor of New Century Press in Hong Kong. As a teacher in Beijing in 1989, she was an eyewitness to the Tiananmen Square crackdown. ADI IGNATIUS is an American journalist who covered China for The Wall Street Journal during the Zhao Ziyang era. He most recently served as Time magazine’s deputy managing editor. ZHAO AT TIANANMEN BEFORE THE MASSACRE “I was trying to persuade them to end the hunger strike . . . I felt it was a waste for these young students to end their lives like this. [The students could not] imagine the treatment in store for them.” ZHAO ON EVADING HIS JAILERS “After I played at Chang Ping Golf Course, the news was released . . . Both Jiang Zemin and Li Peng became extremely anxious. They condemned the decision and began an investigation to find out who had allowed me to go out to play golf.” ZHAO ON HOW CHINA MUST CHANGE “Not only should [China] implement a market economy, it must also adopt a parliamentary democracy as its political system.”
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 36
 State of the Prisoner May 20, 2009
Dick Johnson (Oklahoma USA)
77 out of 81 found this review helpful
I actually read the book before writing this review - and this is a review only of this book and is not any kind of statement about the PRC or the events of 1989.
This is a fascinating book, easily worth the five stars, if only because it is unique. The dramatic story behind its being published seems more movie script than true story.
The story of the tapes does almost defy belief. He not only secretly made them, recording over his grandchildren's tapes, but he also made copies of them. These copies were passed out to his guests piecemeal without any of them knowing who else had one of the tapes. Then the masters were placed with the grandchildren's toys and he told no one. Was he hoping someone would discover them? The only identifying marks he made on the tapes were small numbers. Then, after his death they were "discovered". And - the rest of the story is history. That is truly amazing.
What is also amazing is that he either had been squirreling away copies of documents and notes of conversations at his home or he had access to them even while under house arrest. The amount of detail (including quotes) of events more than a decade old is astounding.
The comments I below are not against this book but to comment on much of what seems to be spin by Zhao Ziyang (the key word is "seems").
This is not a "memoir" - but rather a recounting of the events leading up to and following his removal from all office in the PRC. Was he a scapegoat for the Tiananmen disaster? Probably. Was he illegally and unfairly treated? Very likely. Was he, as he makes out, innocent of any culpability in what took place? Probably not.
This is not the story of a nobody caught up in a system he doesn't understand; but rather the story of the holder of one of the most important positions in one of the most powerful nations in the world. Zhao Ziyang was a political veteran within the Communist Party and the PRC government. Even the editors admit Zhao could play politics with the best of them.
Throughout the book he always presents himself in the most favorable light. He seems to have never have been aware of any back room deals and, of course, to have never made any himself - and to have constantly been amazed that such things were happening around him (and about him). But he does slip on one occasion to admit to slyly trying to subvert a position of Deng.
Though he continues to remind those in power of the lack of legal basis to keep him under house arrest, not once does he specifically ask them what he has to do for it to end. How little would he have to bend to gain his freedom? He could then have decided whether to compromise or not.
He stubbornly continued during his house arrest to try to fight city hall (the PRC central government). I find it hard to believe he actually thought the methods he was using would have any positive affect in his treatment and status.
He doesn't seem to recognize the box the government was in. If they ever change his status, they would in effect be admitting that what they had been doing was wrong. The continuation of his losing tactics year after year makes one think he was playing a game. Since they wouldn't change - he wouldn't change. Therefore, stalemate.
The opening parts of the book reflect his legal defense arguments placed in the court of world public opinion. The rest of the book is about his participation in the economic and political events of the 1980's.
It is easy to sit where I am and criticize someone else's actions or inaction. Under the regime of the PRC at that time, serious reprisals were possible for him and his family.
He told this story, I feel, for two reasons. First, he wanted to get his side of the story out to the world. Second, he wanted posterity to look more favorably toward him than the "official" PRC records would reflect.
The editors have included very helpful footnotes to explain specific events mentioned in the book. The addition of a time-line of Zhao's life and a "Who Was Who" section of key people mentioned, were great ideas.
This is an unusual chance to get inside the head of one of the power elite of 1980's PRC. Whether absolute truth, spin or (most likely) a combination of both, this is a phenomenal read.
Excellent Insights to The Hidden World of Chinese Leadership! May 20, 2009
Loyd E. Eskildson (Phoenix, AZ.)
30 out of 32 found this review helpful
Zhao Ziyang was Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980-1987, and General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1987-1989. Zhao appears to have been the architect of economic reform, though he acknowledges that without Deng's support it could not proceed. At the height of the Tienanmen Square protests in 1989 Zhao tried to stop the growing confrontation and instead was removed from power and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. Zhao utilized the time to produce a written and recorded memoir - those materials provide the foundation for "Prisoner of the State." The book includes details of the crackdown, as well as the power ploys used among China's leaders, and the thinking behind their economic reforms.
The rationale behind China's economic reforms is particularly interesting. They began in an environment thick with ideological struggles, and sometimes hamstrung by missteps (eg. prosecutions of early innovators, overly one-sided demands and limits on foreign investment).
Zhao's initial interest in economic reform derived from comparing 1980 vs. 1952 statistics (the latter was the year most agreed the economy was fully recovered from the civil war). During the time span, industrial output increased by 8.1X, GDP by 4.2X, and industrial fixed assets by 26X, vs. an average consumption increase of only 2X.
Another motivator for change was that people were beginning to ask "What exactly is the advantage of socialism?" Before "liberation," eg. Shanghai was a highly developed metropolis, more advanced than Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. But after a couple of decades of socialism, Shanghai had become run-down and fallen behind. Similarly, fears of handing over Hong Kong and Macau, and reunification with Taiwan were going to be difficult to overcome without economic development. Zhao concluded was that economic efficiency had been very low, and focused his thinking on providing people with increased returns on their labor and resolving the problems with property rights. Ultimately, Deng Xiaoping (Paramount Leader 1978-early 1990s) was convinced and prioritized efforts ("Four Modernizations") in the order of agriculture, industry, technology, and defense.
Zhao then obtained a number of his ideas from overseas trips. An early lesson was that centralized decision-making created sub-optimum outcomes - eg. China tended to invest heavily in terracing and irrigation in arid areas, vs. other nations simply choosing to instead cultivate crops capable of growing without extra water. Initially the Chinese economy was quite insular. However, Zhao also learned that China would benefit from growing more sugar (less rice), and then selling the sugar and buying some rice overseas. Still another insight came from visiting Switzerland - there he found high productivity, despite small farms, because the farmers used cooperatives for expensive, specialized services and machines. This eliminated the Chinese rationale for large, collective farms.
The first area of modernization was agriculture, and within that the areas barely able to feed themselves were the first to experiment with the "Household Land Contract System" which broke up communes into family plots, reduced their production quotas, and allowed the families to sell the excess on the open market. Despite the success, ideologues opposed expanding the experiment, but Deng over-ruled them.
Industrialization was the second target for modernization. Zhao, et al, realized that relying on Chinese raw materials would create hardships for Chinese uses of those resources, and delay successful growth in final product growth. They also realized that attempting to produce technological products (third target) was both unrealistic (limited skills) and of limited employment benefit. Thus, agriculture, then simple industry (eg. steel) were the first targets. Rather than transport large quantities of China's low-grade iron ore over long distances, it was also decided to import higher-grade ore from Canada and Australia using lower-cost ships. (Focus on developing the coast land. This avoided the delays and expenses of first developing mines, improved transportation, etc.) Finally, it was recognized that enterprises conducting imports and exports must be responsible for their own profits and losses, and allowed to conduct their business freely.
Early on (1988) inflation became a problem - 7% in 1987, 18.5% in 1988. The cause, according to Zhao, was the dual-price system (eg. quota production at government-set prices vs. surplus production sold at market prices). Zhao realized eventually the market price had to rule, but in the transition China mistakenly announced price increases in advance, leading to massive hoarding. Then faced with an increasing run on the banks as savers took their money out, the authorities created value-guaranteed deposits to stop the bank runs.
Corruption became an important issue in 1988. Zhao saw increased transparency (eg. posting all the loans and rates made by a particular bank), increased pay for officials, and ending the discrepancy between subsidized Chinese product prices vs. market prices as keys to resolving the problem. (In his memoirs, he admits the problem continued.)
Finally, while Zhao saw a need for increased democratization to go along with its economic grow, Deng disagreed strongly and wouldn't even allow the topic to be discussed, primarily because of his observations how difficult it was to deal with the U.S. "There are three governments in the U.S. When we deal with them, we don't know who can actually make decisions. They balance each other out and wrangle with each other. It is very difficult to get anything done." This despite Deng's first-hand knowledge of Mao and Stalin's difficulties, and his personal experiences in the Cultural Revolution - Deng Xiaoping and his family were targeted and his son tortured and forced out of the window of a four-story building, becoming a paraplegic.
Bottom Line: China's economic turnaround wasn't the result of a sudden stroke of insight, or implementation of ideology - rather observations, research, and considerable thinking over a long period of time. "Prisoner of the State" is an invaluable source for understanding this and other aspects of modern-day China.
Information never reveal to the public May 14, 2009
K. Ho (Texas)
48 out of 56 found this review helpful
This book is a must read for everyone who has interest in knowing the political arena behind the Tiananmen Square Massacre on 6/4/1989. The book was based on 38 audio tapes secretly recorded by ex-Premier Zhao Ziyang before his death in 2005. The Chinese government has no idea about the tapes until they were smuggled out of the country and later translated and published in English. This book is a biography of Premier Zhao about the massacre, provides an insight of the political and power struggle in months before the incident, and the dark side of Deng Xiaoping that most people are not aware of. This book comes at a time of the 20th anniversary of the massacre, reminds us of the price of democracy, and the justice that is still awaiting.
Let this State Secret be told to the world now...! May 15, 2009
Isaac Ho (Canada)
24 out of 31 found this review helpful
I just bought this book and I urge those who cherish freedom and human rights to buy this book too.
The Tienanman Massacre in Beijing in 1989 has tarnished the image of the People's Republic of China. Today, its leaders are still reluctant to talk about this affair and have arrested those who want to tell the world the truth behind it. Now the late Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, prior to his death has orally recorded on tapes who was really behind the ordering of this killing by the PLA...!!! However, the man responsible for killing the innocent and freedom-loving students was none other than the so-called Chinese Father of Economic Development, the late Chairman Deng Xiaoping. The sad truth is that the patriotic Zhao Ziyang only regained his freedom when he died as a prisoner of the Chinese state...! THE TRUTH IS SOMETIMES STRANGER THAN FICTION. So buy this earth-shaking book for its damned revelations before stock runs out. Cheers...~
Fascinating, informative, objective and inspiring June 15, 2009
H. Zhang (MA United States)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Anyone who has any interest in contemporary Chinese history or current state of China should read it. Even those who have no interest in China can benefit from reading this book (I will explain this later).
I received the book as a gift when I was debating whether I should wait for its Chinese version and I was not supposed to have time to read it, but once I started reading it, I could not stop. Once I finished reading it, I could not help starting writing this review. Actually the Chinese version came out in Hong Kong on the day when I started reading this book and all of its 14,000 copies were sold out in two hours.
It is very important to keep in mind what this book is not. It is not an autobiography. It is not a scholarly work trying to provide a complete account of certain historic events. It is primarily a person's memoir about two very important series of events of modern China - the June 4th incident and the economic reforms. The memoir was recorded secretly by a person under house arrest with little means to research.
Since many people use autobiographies and memoirs to defend, praise themselves by twisting facts, telling partial truth or even tell outright lies, one cannot help asking whether this book falls into this category. My answer is firmly no. I draw this conclusion based on the following:
1.Everything in the book is consistent with various reports published by media that are not Chinese government mouthpiece, or anecdotes in the past two decades. In other words, it is very easy to find plenty of evidence to support the stories told in the memoir.
2.A common way to let people make the judgment on any controversy is letting two sides present their cases. The Chinese government has been exclusively presenting their case on the author and relevant events for two decades in China suppressing any dissent with iron fist (Latest news: all computers sold in China must be installed government mandated screening software from July 1, 2009 on) . This book will surely be banned in China. Their fear of dissemination of or inquiry about some facts shows the weakness of their arguments. Actually the author includes the complete list of the 30 points of the government's accusations against him (p 63). Some of them are true and Zhao was proud of them. The opposing side's arguments only add more credibility to the memoir.
3.Zhao is famous for his objectivity. This is reflected more than anything else by his treatment of Deng Xiaoping. Deng purged Zhao and he was the only person with the power to do this. He was also the only person who could free Zhao or offer a little bit more freedom that Zhao was yearning for, but he never did. Zhao did not use his memoir to bash Deng. To the contrary, he gave plenty of credit to Deng for playing a critical role in the reforms that he carried out. Even regarding Deng's decision to use the military to crack down the protests, he did not describe Deng as a ruthless butcher. His assessment of Deng is shared by many people including this reviewer.
However, this is his side of story. I wish he had told more - more about his early life, more credits to Hu Yaobang, Wan Li, two other key figures who made enormous contribution to the reforms; but I can understand the limitation of this memoir. Recording 30 tapes under house arrest and sneaking them out is an extraordinary feat by itself.
About a third of the memoir is about the the June 4th. Though almost all of Zhao's accounts of the events have been reported to certain degree one way or another, the memoir offers a unique coherent description of what happened at the top of the government and especially the details of Zhao's thoughts and actions. It clarifies the roles of all the top key players in the government. Deng, the unofficial de facto paramount leader, had the final say in any major decisions. The hardliners had upper hands over reformers such as Zhao. Zhao's assessment of the events during chaotic period is consistent with that of most objective observers. This shows how well he was connected with the people, how calm and objective he maintained. "I refused to become the General Secretary who mobilized the military to crack down on students". This statement and his consistent actions show that between the interest of people and his own power, he chose the former. He lost all but a confined body and a noble soul. Even after losing the highest official position of the government, he had many opportunities to retain significant privileges. All he needed to do was to bend to admit "his wrong doing" and ask for forgiveness, but he chose to stand straight and fight in every possible way he could for justice. He was effectively pushed aside about two weeks before the massacre, so the memoir does offer any detailed account of the military move. He kept fighting lies, appealing for reassessment of the June 4th and his rehabilitation. Was he knowingly fighting in vain? No. The Chinese Communist Party has launched political campaigns one after another in its short history and a large number of people were purged in each campaign, then many of them were rehabilitated. Both Deng and Zhao were purged during the Cultural Revolution and rehabilitated later. The possibility of regaining freedom for Zhao did exist but was remote. Many people were rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution primarily because the person who was ultimately responsible for their purge Mao died and the Gang of Four who executed many purges were arrested. Though Zhao outlived Deng, but the beneficiaries of the June 4th such as Jiang Zemin, Li Peng were still in power. It is worthwhile note that the government's view of the June 4th has changed significantly implicitly. As Yao Jianfu, a scholar and keen observer of Chinese politics pointed out the word that the government has used to refer to the June 4th has evolved from incriminating to neutral for the past two decades as following: "anti-party, anti-socialist turmoil", "political turmoil", "turmoil", "political disturbance", "disturbance", "incident".
For those who argue that the government crackdown on the movement enabled the sustained high growth grate of China, I'd like to point out that the economical growth slowed down dramatically after the June 4th until Deng Xiaping realized in 1992 that reforms needed to be resumed to prevent the loss of all that had been achieved and he made the famous southern tour that effectively continued Zhao's economic reforms without saying it explicitly. (Disclosure: I am a witness to the June 4th and spent the darkest night from Xinhuamen, Tiananmen to Hepingmen as a graduate student in uniform in Beijing at that time.)
Approximately two thirds of the memoir is about reform. Actually the Chinese version of the memoir is titled The Journey of Reforms. As described by the book, Deng made the reform and opening of China possible, but Zhao was largely responsible for the ideas and their implementation. This has been widely acknowledged. Zhao's success started much earlier before he was promoted to the premier position. I am the witness to his early success in Sichuan province where I grew up. Sichuan has been historically known as the "Land of Abundance" because its rich soil and suitable weather for agricultural production. However, toward the end of the Cultural Revolution, when Zhao was assigned the top government post there, the economy was so bad like the rest of China that even the easily grown vegetable bok choy was rationed let alone the staple grains. Soon after the death of Mao hence the end of the Cultural Revolution, Zhao carried out a series of reforms and the economy recovered very quickly. Things were changing so fast that even a few months time was long enough to see noticeable change everywhere. There are all kinds of anecdotes about Zhao's down to earth style, unexpected visits of places to obtain the true pictures without sugarcoating by local officials. Zhao is a sharp contrast to one of his predecessors: Li Jingquan under whom 10 million people starved to death during the Great Leap in the late 1950s. Quite a few of my high school classmates are the kids of Zhao's lieutenants or aides including his successor as the first party secretary of Sichuan. They did not show any sign of being privileged, consistent with Zhao's style.
The memoir details the evolution of Zhao's thinking regarding reforms. It does not indicate in the slightest way that Zhao was a genius economist, instead it shows he was a keen objective student and pragmatist with the passion to serve the people. It reveals the tough battles he had to fight against hard-liners. Deng was critical to his victories, but Deng was also responsible for preventing the badly needed political reform. Deng never allowed any compromise of the CCP's absolute dictating power. Though Zhao's enormous contribution to the reforms is unquestionable and widely acknowledged, I wish the memoir acknowledges more of the great contribution to the economic reforms by another pragmatist leader - Wan Li, and the extraordinary contribution in the political front by another courageous leader, Zhao's predecessor Hu Yaobang. Without Hu's sweeping effort in rehabilitating many pro-reform officials, intellectuals and fighting the leftists to create the atmosphere for the economic reforms, Zhao's job would have been much more difficult and his achievement would have been much more limited.
The memoir is very critical of a few Zhao's enemies but in a very civil way. These people sought Zhao's destruction and this is well known. I'd like to talk about them here to second Zhao's criticisms of them and show they deserve harsher words. Li Peng, then premier, is well a reported figure known for his very limited intellect and hard-line stand. Deng Liqun, known as the "left king", was the foremost antagonist of reforms. He was the prime mover of the anti-spiritual pollution campaign in early 1980s. The so called "spiritual pollution" includes a broad range of things. For example, love or sexual oriented scenes in literature, different art forms were regarded as "spiritual pollution" at that time. Ridiculously Deng Liqun's mixture of work and sex is so despicable and disgusting that I cannot bring myself to discuss it here. Zhao only used the vague phrase "moral problem" to just touch it. He mainly criticized Deng Liqun's assault on the reforms from the theoretical front. Zhao abolished Red Flag, a magazine used by Deng as his primary weapon. I was a victim of Red Flag's poison. I red its every issue until I entered college. It took me years to wash out the poison and start to truly appreciate all the significant reforms in the 1980's. It was not just Zhao who despised Deng Liqun. Deng was so unpopular that he could not be elected to the CCP's central committee even the senior leaders tried to promote him to the politburo of the central committee. He failed again to garner enough votes to be elected to the Standing Committee of the Central Advisory Commission even Zhao was kind enough to promote the move. This kind of loss is very rare for a prominent party member because the number of candidates is only slightly bigger than the seats in any CCP's internal election. Even today, Deng Liqun has not stopped his vicious attacks on Zhao with outright lies. Wang Zhen, another Zhao hater, is famous for his ruthlessness. His killing of Uighurs, especially their intellectuals, in Xingjiang sowed the seeds of hatred that still produce conflicts, pains and fear. If he had had his way, the June 4th massacre would probably have had taken tens of thousands of lives instead of thousands. His ruthlessness has nothing to do with his military background. Most early senior CCP leaders were from the military. Actually it was due to the appeals and warnings of many conscientious top military elders such as Marshal Xu, Marshal Nie, General Zhang Aiping that the massacre was prevented from escalating to a much larger scale. These are true brilliant former military commanders who won battles involving casualties of literally tens of thousands in World War II and the Chinese Civil War. However, the most famous achievement by Wang Zhen during war time is this 359th brigade's successful "agricultural production". There is strong evidence that the "agricultural production" includes opium trade that generated a large amount of cash badly needed by CCP in early 1940s. Li Xiannian, another Zhao hater, can be best understood by looking at his entire career and especially how he treated his colleagues including those of the Fourth Front Red Army, the West Route Army purged brutally by Mao. Mao waged many political campaigns to cleanse CCP in order to consolidate and secure his power. Many people were purged in each campaign. Li always came out OK even when he was at a wrong spot. The only time he showed some principle was in 1969 when he joined a large number of senior leaders to criticize the Cultural Revolution. That was likely his miscalculation. He was punished briefly before he was promoted to the highest position he had ever held by then and this was in the middle of the Cultural Revolution. He certainly knew very well how to sense the wind direction, read the mind of people with dictating power such as Mao, Deng and please them accordingly.
The last chapter is Zhao's vision for China's future. It is very telling that a loyal communist party member came to the conclusion that the parliamentary system is the best available system. He made this conclusion with his characteristic objectivity. He believed this system can prevent "commercialization of power, rampant corruption, a society polarized between rich and poor" that exist countries such as China which wealth disparity ranks number one in the world currently. He thought the parliamentary system "is not perfect; it has many problems" and "it is possible that in the future a more advanced political system than parliamentary democracy will emerge. But that is a matter for the future. At present, there is no other". His suggested approach to achieve this system also reflects his characteristic pragmatism. He thought the democratizing process should be started within CCP while maintaining the ruling position of the party and smoothly transition to the parliamentary system with pace adjusted according to the social development.
Like many legendary figures, Zhao will certainly be written in Chinese history eventually as a noble official who put the interest of the country and people first, refused to sell his soul or kneel down to the ruler, was loyal to his family.
Zhao was a human being after all so he was fallible . There is no doubt that he was complacent with Mao's political cleansing and disastrous economical policies in 1950s like the vast majority of government officials, but he protected many intellectuals, moderated the Great Leap Forward execution, and especially, did an extraordinary job in remedying the damage in early 60s which later contributed to his dismissal and being forced to labor in a factory for 4 years during the Cultural Revolution. He actively participated in the land reform which resulted in the killing of over a million land owners including his father. However, Zhao did try to prevent the land reform from going extreme at one point by issuing a moratorium on many measures in his district. I wish he had expanded the memoir to a autobiography detailed his fascinating journey of life. Zhao's primary interest was in economy. Politics was something that he had to deal with. This probably explains why he did not rally many people in the top to build a strong reform alliance. The memoir shows that he relied on Deng frequently as a short cut to maneuver politics. It is said that he heavily utilized a think tank of elites (the memoir did not shed much light on this) and this alienated many elders. Very unfortunately Hu Yaobang did not have the chance to write his memoir. I hope there will be a memoir by Wan Li.
This memoir is worth reading even for people who are not interested in China. It can help the appreciation of freedom, liberty and protection provided by a democratic government and free press all of which are often taken for granted. It can help disillusion of totalitarian regimes. It can help understanding of the heterogeneity of communists some of whom share the same goal of prosperity and justice for the people and they can be set free by the truth hence embrace true democracy. If some democratic powers can restore their status of shining beacons that have been diminished by various events since 2003, the dramatic advancement of the world of 1980s can happen again ridding of many of the remaining totalitarian regimes.
Though Zhao was under house arrest for his last 16 years, but his soul was free. Though he has passed away, but he lives in the hearts of many people who admire and are grateful to him. I have no doubt his statue will be raised on the land by the people that he loved so much that he devoted all his life to.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 36
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