The Memoirs of Zhao Ziyang: Topping China's prohibited books list?

Although ACB has a been and great love for the Chinese motherland, there are a great many things about it that make ACB both angry and sad at the same time, and one of the things the effects ACB the most is Beijing's continuing attitude towards the atrocities committed at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

It is not just that the atrocities happened, or that so many hopes and dreams were crushed on that day, or even that so many lives were lost, it is that even after all of this time Beijing still refuses to address the issue in a correct manner.

Even 20 years after those great and terrible days, when hopes rose and were then so cruley ground into the dirt, Beijing refuses to account for its actions, and refuses to allow any views be heard other than its own pathetic cry that the past should be burried for the sake of future stability: which is a cruel deciet in itself in itself.

Those who wish to search for the truth find nothing but locked doors in front of them and secret policemen behind them. Those who wish to discuss what happened are warned off, imprisoned, or otherwise censored. And those who wish to tell their own stories are victimized by a cold and heartless state that is more concerned about its own survival than about the Chinese people.

It is for these reasons that ACB was heartened to learn that of the publication of "Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang", the memoirs of the late senior Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, whom was deposed for refusing to take a hard line with Chinese protesters at Tiananmen and other sites around the country. The memoirs are based on approximately 30 hours of spoken word recordings made by Zhao prior to his death. and provide a side of the story that is rarely heard from a man who was both a victim of the events surrounding the massacre, and a key player in them.

In an unusual move, ACB is not going to blog directly about this topic, or to cut and paste in a story wholesale from elsewhere, but is instead going to direct readers over to the pages of Time Magazine where the story may be read in full in much more eloquent English that ACB can muster. Please adjourn to http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1898042-2,00.html for further reading.


Prisoner of the State is not going to make the Mainland best sellers list. In fact any publisher who dares to print a copy is likely to find their business 'significantly disrupted' in future. Also, do not expect to see Mainland reviews of this prohibited book or even discussions on the Mainland about why it is has been prohibited because as every China watcher knows, when a book is prohibited discussion of the book is also prohibited, as is discussion on why the discussion of prohibited books is also prohibited. And so on.

However, do expect to see pirate copies being passed around in select cireles, as well as texts published in Hong Kong and Chiense Taiwan.

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