Power, Policy and Elite Politics under Zhao Ziyang

摘要

Heir apparent to Deng Xiaoping but illegally deposed as general secretary, Zhao Ziyang was held under house arrest after the Tiananmen events of 1989 until his death at 85 in 2005. A three-year special investigation to prove that Zhao "supported turmoil and split the party" simply fizzled out. In 2000, after many failed attempts to regain his freedom and to reverse the verdicts against the students and himself, he secretly recorded his memoirs for posterity. Gaige licheng, a transcript of about 30 cassette-tapes, was smuggled out of China and, together with an English translation entitled Prisoner of the State: The Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang, published on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown in June 2009.