Tiananmen Papers

The Tiananmen Papers was first published in English in January 2001 by PublicAffairs. The extended Chinese version of this book was published in April that same year under the title 中國六四真相 (Pinyin: Zhōngguó Liùsì Zhēnxiàng, translated as June Fourth: The True Story) by Mirror Books in Hong Kong. The book is presented as a compilation of selected secret Chinese official documents relating to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The documents used in both books are said to have been made available by a Chinese compiler under the pseudonym Zhang Liang, whose identity is hidden to protect the individual from potential persecution. The English version of the book was edited and translated by Andrew J. Nathan, Perry Link, and Orville Schell, who claim to place full trust in the compiler. Speculations about the authenticity of the book have nevertheless been fervent, as the editors were never given the actual physical documents, but rather a reformatted version of the material.

The Tiananmen Papers combines various government documents with editors' notes and footnotes to illustrate the situation within the Chinese Communist Party surrounding the time of the protests. The documents are arranged in chronological order from April to late June 1989. The book portrays a sense of factionalism and power struggle within the Party, in which the reformist faction is headed by General Secretary Zhao Ziyang and the conservative faction by Premier Li Peng. Zhao appears to have had a conciliatory attitude to the students’ demands, deeming the protests to be mostly patriotic. Li had more of a hardline approach, and attempted to convince paramount leader Deng Xiaoping that the protests were causing “turmoil” and that the students were “networking.” The book portrays Deng, the most prominent Party elder, as the main decision-maker of the party. Though it appears that he “did not play this role happily,” the internal division in the Party required a decision-maker. In the end he sided with the conservative faction and decided to dismiss Zhao, appoint Jiang Zemin as General Secretary to replace Zhao, declare martial law, and clear the square by force.

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