BEIJING – A Hong Kong book publisher has been forced to halt the much-awaited publication of former Chinese premier Li Peng’s memoirs of controversial events leading up to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
About 20,000 Chinese-language copies of The Tiananmen Diary of Li Penghad initially been scheduled to go on sale in Hong Kong today, but Bao Pu, of New Century Press, stopped the presses last Friday because he did not have copyright ownership.
An advance copy of the memoirs in which Mr Li reveals that China’s revered reformist leader, Deng Xiaoping, said the government had to “spill some blood” to quell the June 4th, 1989, protests.
A source with ties to the leadership in Beijing said Mr Li had never consented to Mr Bao publishing his memoirs, written in 2004 but suppressed by current Chinese leaders who seek to erase from public memory images of troops and tanks crushing the student-led movement.
“Relevant institutions provided information related to copyright (ownership) before publication. According to Hong Kong copyright laws, we have no choice but to scrap our original publication plans,” Mr Bao said.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, but retains a high degree of autonomy under the handover agreement.
Mr Bao declined to say who approached him with proof of copyright ownership. He would not comment when asked how much losses he estimated he would incur and what he planned to do with books already printed.
By moving to stop publication, the authorities appear to be giving credence to the authenticity of the memoirs. But Chinese officials have made no public comments to either confirm or deny the memoirs’ authenticity.
“I’m surprised by the level of mobilisation,” Mr Bao said, referring to Chinese intervention to stop publication.
Troops mobilised under a martial law proclamation shot and killed hundreds of protesters and bystanders around Tiananmen Square in Beijing, according to witnesses and rights groups.
Mr Bao defended his earlier decision to publish the memoirs without Mr Li’s consent.
“We have reason to believe that Li Peng himself wrote this book and is willing to have it published, but his publication rights were deprived by a third party – the Communist Party’s Politburo,” Mr Bao said.
Hong Kong “laws do not regulate whether publication under such conditions is permitted,” Mr Bao added.
“The memoirs have historical value and significance and the public have a willingness to know. Hence, it’s very natural for us to decide to publish them. It was a prudent decision.”
Last year, Mr Bao dropped a political bombshell when he released secret memoirs of the 1989 events by Zhao Ziyang, who was purged as Communist Party general secretary with Premier Li’s help for being too soft on the protesters.
Mr Zhao spent more than 15 years under house arrest until his death in 2005 and had to secretly record his memoirs on cassette tapes which were smuggled out of the country, transcribed and published in Hong Kong.
Mr Bao is the son of Bao Tong, Mr Zhao’s top aide in 1989 and the most senior Chinese official jailed for sympathising with protesters. Bao Tong was imprisoned for seven years and remains under tight police surveillance in Beijing.– (Reuters)