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China blocks Li Peng's memoirs

China's Communist Party has blocked former premier Li Peng (李鵬) from publishing a memoir aimed at cleansing his legacy as the perpetrator behind the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, according to a Hong Kong news magazine.

Li's nearly 300,000-word manuscript, titled The Key Moment, details how important decisions and assessments at the time were not made by him as widely believed, the Yazhou Zhoukan said.

The former premier sought to explain how leaders in the central government were divided over what to do about the weeks-long pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the magazine said in its March 28 issue.

Li, 76, finished the memoir last autumn and sent the manuscript together with dozens of photos to the Communist Party's top organ, the Politburo, seeking permission to publish it, Yazhou Zhoukan reported.

But Li was told it was inappropriate to publish the book for the time being, despite Li expressing willingness to revise its contents.

The weekly cited sources who have read the manuscript and are close to current Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and Li's successor, parliamentary chairman Wu Bangguo (吳邦國).

Li's manuscript highlighted an incident on April 22, 1989, when students gathered at Tiananmen Square, demanding a chance to deliver a petition to Li, the then-premier, in person, but Li failed to meet with them.

Li's memoir argued that contrary to public belief, he was unaware the students were told he would meet them and did not mean to ignore them, a move which made the students felt lied to and caused the rift between students and the government to widen.

The report could not be confirmed yesterday, but other reports, including the Writer Digest, had said Li, who retired last year from his position as head of the national parliament, was writing his memoirs.

Li is reviled for being the public face of the government during the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre in which tanks rolled into Beijing and troops killed hundreds of protesters and even bystanders.

Li is believed to have pushed for a bloody crackdown on the demonstrators and to have persuaded the aged paramount leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) to approve it.

The book consists of Li's diary for a few months before and after the massacre on June 4, 1989 and recounts conversations with other leaders, as Li tried to explain the behind-the-scenes rationale that led to the decision to carry out the crackdown.

Li has already written about the Tiananmen incident in a book published last year, the South China Morning Post said yesterday.

In United will paints magnificent tableau: Li Peng's diary on Three Gorges, Li revealed he was admitted to hospital after June 4, 1989.

The Chinese government has been facing pressure from victims' families, dissidents and rights activists to reevaluate the 1989 incident.
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