Zhao Zhiyang (趙紫陽) became a figure almost forgotten in Chinese society. He was once the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, basically the second in command to Deng Xiaoping, the legendary leader who transformed China’s economy and set in on the course it more or less follows today, namely authoritarian capitalism. Following Zhao’s tenure as premier, he later took the reins as the Secretary General of the Communist Party of China, a role now held by China’s current president, Hu Jintao.
When the protests of 1989 were at their peak, Zhao Zhiyang personally went to Tian’anmen Square to appeal to the students to return to their classes and give up the hunger strike. He basically had been removed by this point, though no formal announcement had been made. He knew what was coming. At that point, discussions were taking place to put all of Beijing under martial law, something which had not been done since the Cultural Revolution. Zhou ended up spending the remainder of his life, from 1989 until his death in 2005, under house arrest or semi-house arrest.
The Chinese government has successfully blocked much of the knowledge of the Tian’anmen Square massacre from the young. Most Chinese students don’t know anything about it. The Great Firewall of China, a wall built largely and lamentably with American bricks in the form of support from Google, Yahoo, and Cisco, blocks any mention of it on the Internet. It does not appear in any Chinese textbook. Chinese students who study abroad are often quite shocked to learn of it. It is something which has been withheld from them. Likewise, Zhao Zhiyang, a figure once very prominent in governmental affairs, faded away almost completely. When he died, he was given a very low key ceremony at Baobaoshan Cemetery, but after the ashes were returned to the family, nobody knows where, or indeed if they have been buried. His official obituary made no mention of the fact that he was once Premier of the People’s Republic of China or that he was once Secretary General of the Communist Party of China. The current Premier, Wen Jiabao, was once an aide to Zhao. But he’s not talking about his former mentor at all these days.
Unbeknownst to his guards, Zhao had secretly been preserving his memoirs. He recorded his thoughts on tape and hid them in plain sight among his grandchildren’s toys. At great risk, the tapes were taken to Hong Kong which still continues to have freedom of speech. (Indeed, when I first went there, my jaw dropped to see the sorts of things they were offering in the bookstores. Books which are strictly forbidden in the People’s Republic of China are openly sold.) Zhao had given copies of the tapes to trusted friends and kept the masters in his office. Nobody, not even his family, knew what he was up to.
One of Zhao’s closest aides was Bao Tong. Unlike Zhao, Bao Tong did end up going to prison and currently under semi-house arrest in Beijing. He continues to write articles critical of the government. Bao Tong’s son, Bao Pu, has residency in Hong Kong, luckily enough for him. Bao Pu was one of the translators of Zhao’s memoirs. With his name on the book, I rather think that he’s not going to be able to visit his father anytime soon in Beijing. Chinese citizens who are residents of Hong Kong and bear Hong Kong passports need travel documents issued by the mainland consular authorities just in order to visit the mainland. The Chinese government often uses these permits to restrict the entry into the mainland of people they deem controversial or even dangerous. Thus, democracy rights protestors and the like often find themselves barred from entry. Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-kuin, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, was once barred from visiting the mainland for six years. Cardinal Zen is a voice for democracy and social justice in Hong Kong. That isn’t the sort of voice they would like to have in Beijing or even Shanghai.
I recently bought a copy of Zhao Zhiyang’s book Prisoner of the State here in Korea. It is a fascinating look inside how the Chinese government really works. In so many ways, the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China (yes, China still has one of those) resembles nothing so much as a Mafia godfather surrounded by his henchmen. And this is the same system of government that China has today! It has sold in massive quantities in Hong Kong. They are already on a second printing. Mainland Chinese citizens who have permission to visit Hong Kong have been buying it up. And pirated versions have been posted on the Internet, though I imagine that the Great Firewall of China is quickly suppressing these.
In recent days, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region had to publicly apologise for comments he made on Tian’anmen Square. While the Chinese government may stifle discussion of it on the Mainland, Hong Kong people still remember it vividly. A few years before, Margaret Thatcher and Deng Xiaoping had signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration which set out the way in which Hong Kong was to transition into Chinese rule. The Hong Kong people were already feeling quite uneasy about the whole thing when the Tian’anmen Square Massacre happened. A series of protests took place in Hong Kong, something which continues to this day. In a speech, Donald Tsang had said that the massacred happened “a long time ago” and China has changed a lot since then. Many people were angry and he had to apologise.