New Edition of 'The Tiananmen Papers' Dredges Up Details of Military's Actions

Matt Pottinger / Wall Street Journal 16apr01

HONG KONG -- New Chinese-language editions of "The Tiananmen Papers" sold out at Hong Kong bookstores over the weekend, foreshadowing an uphill battle for Beijing as it tries to thwart distribution and stifle a domestic debate about the book's incendiary topic: the leadership's decision to crush pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989.

Timed to coincide with the April 15 launch of the student-led protests 12 years ago, the release of the Chinese edition has apparently raised alarms in Beijing, where current leaders, including President Jiang Zemin and head of parliament Li Peng, are targets of its allegations.

"The Tiananmen Papers" claims to reveal the deliberations of China's top leaders during the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing. The book's Chinese-language edition hit bookstores Sunday.

Like the English edition that preceded it, the two-volume set purports to reveal official day-by-day transcripts of the leadership's debates over how to cope with the seven weeks of protests that culminated in bloodshed in Tiananmen Square in the capital on June 4, 1989. The documents were compiled and brought to light by someone claiming to be a Communist Party official, but whose identity has been kept secret. Two respected American Sinologists worked with him and edited the book.

The book, which Beijing has branded a "fabrication," is banned in the mainland, and three pro-Beijing bookstores in Hong Kong have refused to carry copies. But sales were brisk at independent bookshops in the Chinese territory, which still guarantees free speech rights established when it was a British colony.

What is more, many people who purchased the book said they intended to deliver copies to friends and relatives in the mainland -- just one of the challenges Beijing faces to keep the book from rekindling a debate on the military's quelling of the demonstrations.

Ho Pin, head of New York-based Mirrorbooks Inc. and the publisher of the book, said the original run of 10,000 copies has already sold out and that he expects to sell an additional 20,000 sets by the end of April. "Most of these books will end up in mainland China," he said, surmising that visiting Hong Kong residents and returning mainland Chinese would bring copies back as gifts.

The scene at stores selling the Chinese edition -- which goes by the title "June Fourth: The True Story" -- seemed to support his prediction. At one street corner, several people who thronged round a table where the book was on display snapped up several sets at a time.

"I bought one set for myself, and two sets for my friends in the mainland," said Wong Kai-hon, a Hong Kong electrical equipment dealer who travels frequently to China. A customs official in Guangdong province across the border from Hong Kong said she was unaware of special penalties associated with bringing the book into China, but said carrying "subversive" publications into the mainland could lead to a prison sentence.

The documents in the books portray a leadership divided over whether to use force against the students. Legislative chairman Li, then China's premier, is depicted in a negative light; he was a staunch supporter of a tough line against the students from the start. Mr. Jiang is shown coming to power based on an unconstitutional vote by party elders.

The U.S. editors, Andrew Nathan and Perry Link, say the Chinese version will dispel doubts about the authenticity of the documents. For starters, it will supplant poorly pirated versions that are based on translations from the English edition. It also contains three times more information than the English version, much of it descriptions of simultaneous pro-democracy demonstrations in other Chinese cities.

But China's leadership is more concerned that the book's release will rekindle discussions nationwide of the June 4 crackdown, a subject it has sought to bury. In the past several years, other politically sensitive books have managed to weave themselves into popular perceptions of China's recent history.

One such book was the wildly popular Chinese version of "The Private Life of Chairman Mao," a memoir of the Communist leader written by his personal physician. Despite being officially banned, copies of the book were pirated in Inner Mongolia and other remote areas of China, gradually making their way to bookshelves in college dormitories and homes across the country. The book's depictions of Mao as vengeful and insatiably promiscuous, now stand for common knowledge in China.

Meanwhile, there is growing evidence that suggests Beijing has gone out of its way to contain potential fallout from the release of the Chinese edition of "Tiananmen Papers." Since the English version's release in January, some Chinese officials have said they were required to watch a 4-hour government-produced documentary on the 1989 demonstrations and read an accompanying essay linking the events to Western efforts to destabilize China.

"The leadership says the book is false, but we sure felt reverberations after its release," a midranking People's Liberation Army officer who saw the documentary said by telephone. Officers were required to mouth the party line on the events of June 4.

Chinese security forces have also inexplicably stepped up detentions of Chinese scholars who have spent time overseas. While there is little evidence to suggest a direct connection with the book's publication, many China watchers believe it reflects Beijing's sense that forces are conspiring to undermine its leadership.

Mr. Ho, the publisher, says that while it may take months, he is confident the book will burrow its way into the mainland. "We think it'll be the best-selling Chinese-language book since 'The Private Life of Chairman Mao.'"