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Former Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang's secret journals were smuggled out of China and are to be published May 19th, for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations.

China's Zhao Details Tiananmen Debate Posthumous Memoir Castigates Party By John Pomfret Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 15, 2009 Zhao Ziyang violated one of the central tenets of Communist Party doctrine: He spoke out. But it is only now, four years after his death, that the world is hearing what he had to say. In a long-secret memoir to be published in English and Chinese next week, just in time for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party claims that the decision to impose martial law around Beijing in May...

Amid all the admiration and fear of China's emergence as a modern industrial power, it is easy to forget how old fashioned are the country's politics. China may have embraced capitalism, globalisation and free trade, but its 1.3bn inhabitants are still ruled by a secretive Communist dictatorship. There are two related reasons for remembering this today. First, June 4 is the anniversary of the day in 1989 when party leaders launched a violent assault on the pro-democracy movement centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds of young protesters. Second, the party has recently begun a new campaign against freedom of...

Special Interview with Chen Yizi - Former Advisor to Zhao Ziyang The Chinese Communist Regime Faces Widespread Indignation and Discontent The memorial service for former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Zhao Ziyang was held on the morning of Jan. 29 in Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing. Xinhua News Agency briefly reported Zhao's biography without mentioning his great contribution to China’s political and economical reforms, but specially indicated that Zhao had made “serious mistakes” in the 1989 political turmoil. The Epoch Times interviewed Chen Yizi, former senior adviser to Zhao Ziyang and former director of the Institute for Economic...

BEIJING - China kept a close eye on dissidents Sunday, a sign of the government's unease over potentially widespread mourning over the death of ousted Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang, who fell from power for sympathizing with pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989. Zhao, who died Jan. 17, was cremated Saturday at the main burial site for revolutionary heroes after a tightly controlled memorial service - below a state funeral in status - where only guests approved by the government were allowed. Activists were banned from attending the service and were watched over by security agents guarding their homes and tapping their...

Deposed Chinese leader Zhao cremated in tightly controlled funeral BEIJING (AFP) - Former Chinese party chief Zhao Ziyang was cremated in a tightly controlled funeral as Beijing signalled it had no intention of changing its stance on the reformist leader purged for opposing the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. AFP/Pool Photo "Comrade Zhao Ziyang, who passed away on January 17 at the age of 85, was cremated at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in western Beijing Saturday morning," the official Xinhua news agency said in a brief dispatch. The cremation followed a nearly three-hour funeral attended by an estimated 2,000 people, with hundreds...

Family wants fair appraisal for Zhao BEIJING (Reuters) - The bereaved family of China's purged Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang wants the authorities to give him a posthumous fair appraisal in his funeral eulogy, sources close to his children have said. Zhao was toppled and accused of committing "grave mistakes" by splitting the party after he opposed sending in troops to crush the student-led Tiananmen Square demonstrations for democracy on June 3-4, 1989. He staunchly refused to admit fault. "The family hopes to have a fair appraisal," one source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters on Monday. "They...

Beijing Worried about Zhao Ziyang’s Nobel Peace Prize Nomination The Epoch Times Translated from Chinese Edition Jun 07, 2004 Fifteen years after the Tiananmen Massacre, Chinese leaders are still apprehensive of Zhao Ziyang, former Communist Party General Secretary who opposed the military crackdown of students. While the Chinese leaders are trying to wipe out his name from history, Zhao is being nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize overseas. According to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, which is headquartered in Hong Kong, Zhao has been nominated for the prize every year since 1999. Political Firestorm Possible upon...

China's ghost at the feast By Tim Luard BBC News Online Those who say how "normal" China has become - as they dine out on the success of its economic growth - often overlook one not-so-normal fact. The man who ran the country for much of its first decade of reforms has been under house arrest for the past 15 years. Zhao has been gagged since his appeal to the Tiananmen protesters Zhao Ziyang has not been seen in public since he tearfully appealed to students to leave Tiananmen Square soon before the announcement of martial law in 1989....

It was reported on TASS and a couple of other news sources (I am reading them in Japanese), that former Chinese Premier ZHAO ZIYANG has died in Beijing. If true, he would have been 84.If you recall, he was removed from power as he sided with the students during the 1989 Tienanmen Freedom uprising. There is a famous photo of him (above) addressing the young Chinese protestors with a little bullhorn, down in Tienanmen, before Deng Xiaoping ordered the tanks in. From Tass, and others. Breaking. (9:05 am Eastern time Wednesday)

Beijing's credibility test over Sars By Zhang Lifen BBC World Service Heads have finally rolled over the Chinese government's inaction and cover-up of the Sars virus. Sacking the health minister and mayor of Beijing may calm public anger and demonstrate the resolve of the new leadership under Hu Jintao, who took over as President in March. But the problem does not end there. The mishandling of the crisis has put China's political and administrative system in the dock. And to the surprise of many seasoned China watchers, the Chinese media has raised the previously taboo subject of political reform...