Li Peng's bid to publish memoirs on Tiananmen crackdown rejected

Asian Economic News, March 22, 2004

HONG KONG, March 18 Kyodo

Chinese leaders have rejected former Chinese Premier Li Peng's move to have published a book defending his role in the 1989 military suppression of the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square, a Hong Kong-based weekly reported Thursday.

The Chinese leadership under President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao has rejected the publication of Li's 300,000-character memoirs on grounds that it would be inappropriate at the present time, the Chinese-language Yazhou Zhoukan said in its latest edition said.

The memoirs, titled ''The Critical Moment,'' was written in the form of a diary, detailing the development and decision-making process of major events around the suppression of the student-led protests 15 years ago, the magazine said.

Li, 75, was the prime minister at the time and declared martial law in Beijing to bring the demonstrations to an end.

He has been blamed by families of the victims and the dissident circles for being responsible for the killings during the crackdown, and the hunt for and arrests of democracy activists.

Quoting unnamed sources close to Wen and Wu Bangguo, chairman of the National People's Congress, the magazine said Li last fall sent his manuscript to more than 10 members of Chinese Communist Party's 24-member Politburo for vetting.

In the book, Li revealed that the Chinese leadership had a clear divergence of views on how to handle the student protests in Tiananmen Square, the magazine said.

The former premier indicated that certain important decisions were not made by him and tried to dispute other rumors, it said.

The book also shows Li's intention to shirk his responsibility for the June 4 incident, the magazine quoted those who have read the manuscript as saying.

Last Sunday, Wen defended the 1989 suppression of the democracy protests but avoided labeling the movement ''counterrevolutionary'' as Beijing did in the past.

Wen told a press conference after the National People's Congress's annual session that the demonstrations at the time were ''a very serious political disturbance.''

His remarks followed an appeal by a Chinese military doctor who exposed last year's SARS cover-up for an official reappraisal of the pro-democracy movement.

Jiang Yanyong, a 72-year-old retired surgeon, submitted a letter to Chinese leaders in late February, asking the government to reappraise the official verdict of the student protests as ''patriotic.''