Zhao ziyang prisoner of the state

Memoirs of former Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang

Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang are the memoirs of the former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, who was sacked after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

The book was published in English in May 2009,^[1] to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the clearing of the square by tanks on June 4, 1989.

Prisoner of the State is the story of Premier Zhao Ziyang, the man who brought liberal change to China and who was dethroned at the height of the Tiananmen.

Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang are the memoirs of the former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, who was sacked after the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

The memoirs of the former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, who was sacked after the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

Prisoner of the State is the first book to give readers a front row seat to the secret inner workings of China's government.

Premier Zhao Ziyang reveals the secret workings of China's government behind the Tiananmen massacre—and why he was deposed for trying to stop it.

It is based on a series of about thirty audio tapes recorded secretly by Zhao while he was under house arrest in 1999 and 2000.^[2]

Co-editor Adi Ignatius pinpoints a meeting held at Deng Xiaoping's home on May 17, 1989, less than three weeks before the suppression of the Tiananmen protests, as the key moment in the book.

When Zhao argued that the government should look for ways to ease tensions with the protesters, two conservative officials immediately criticized him. Deng then announced he would impose martial law.