'Deng backed Tiananmen massacre'

Straits Times ^ | 08/19/04 | N/A

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'Deng backed Tiananmen massacre'

Former premier Li, who has long been blamed for the 1989 bloodshed, says it was Deng who decided to send in troops

HONG KONG - China's late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping 'resolutely backed' the Tiananmen Square massacre 15 years ago, former premier Li Peng has said in a rare commentary on the bloody incident he has long been blamed for.

Mr Li was premier when Chinese soldiers were ordered into Tiananmen Square in Beijing to quell a month-long rally by students demanding more democracy in communist China.

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He bore the brunt of the blame for the resulting massacre on June 4, 1989.

But in an article in the Communist Party magazine Seeking Truth, cited widely by Hong Kong media on Wednesday, Mr Li said it was Mr Deng who made the decision to send in the troops.

'In the spring and summer of 1989, a serious political disturbance took place in China,' Mr Li reportedly wrote.

'Comrade Deng Xiaoping - along with other party elders - gave the party leadership their firm and full support to put down the political disturbance using forceful measures.'

Mr Li's comments are among the most explicit made about the event, on which the Chinese authorities maintain a strict gag.

It follows reports that the authorities had blocked his efforts to publish memoirs that sought to clear him from blame for the massacre.

In March, Chinese-language magazine Yazhou Zhoukan claimed Mr Li's manuscript, titled The Key Moment, detailed how important decisions and assessments at the time were not made by him as widely believed.

But he was told it was inappropriate to publish the book, which contained nearly 300,000 words, for the time being.

In his article, he also said Mr Deng decided to ignore opposition in Hong Kong and push for the construction of the country's largest nuclear power plant at nearby Daya Bay on the coast of southern Guangdong province.

The plan caused a stir in the former British colony where environmentalists were worried about possible radioactive leaks.

Mr Li, who became premier in 1988, also recalled how Mr Deng advised him, then a timid apprentice, to deal with the daunting job.

'Comrade Xiaoping said: What I am worried about is that you are not bold enough to carry out your work. You have to learn hard and train yourself in work in order to make yourself more mature,' the media quoted Mr Li as writing.

Other former leaders also wrote articles for Seeking Truth to mark the centenary of Mr Deng's birth on Aug 22 but Mr Li was the only one who referred directly to the Tiananmen massacre. -- AFP

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Ping!

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At the time of Tiananmen Massacre, many Chinese believed that "hardliners" like Li Peng was carrying it out against the wish of "good guys" like Deng Xiao-ping. They turned out to be wrong

[GOP_1900AD]

Many like to point to "Deng Xiao Ping" thought as the harbinger of "democratization" and openness. To me, the tanks smashing people into mush is the true expression of DXP thought, and is the true nature, behind the smiling face, of Communist Red China.