Beijing has told border officers to prevent Hong Kong travellers from smuggling June 4: The True Story (
Anyone trying to enter the mainland with one copy of the book will have it confiscated, while anyone with two or more copies could face criminal charges for "endangering national security," the I-mail and Sing Tao (星島日報) daily newspapers reported. All Chinese officers -- including those who stay overseas for business or political purposes -- are also banned from reading, buying or spreading the content of the book.
The book offers what its editors say are detailed minutes of secret meetings between top Chinese Communist Party officials on the pro-democracy protests of 1989 in China.
Hundreds and maybe thousands of unarmed civilians were killed when top Chinese leaders sent in troops and tanks to end weeks of protests on June 4, 1989.
Beijing responded to the publication of The Tiananmen Papers by saying the editors had fabricated materials and distorted the facts.
The Chinese-language version, about three times as long as the English version as it includes more details, is scheduled to hit stores in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the US and other major markets today.
But advanced sales of the book started in Hong Kong on Thursday where its initial run of 10,000 copies was immediately sold out.
The English-language version went on sale in January this year.
Meanwhile, one of the editors of The Tiananmen Papers said yesterday that China's leaders will face increased popular pressure with the publication of the Chinese-language version.
"The publication of the Chinese-language edition will bring popular pressure on the leadership that hasn't been there before," Princeton University professor Perry Link said.
"What will happen when the Chinese version comes out is that a lot more Chinese will read it. Not only in Hong Kong and Taiwan and overseas, but eventually it will go over the Internet and other ways into China."
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