Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang

Zhao Ziyang; Bao Pu (trans); Renee Chiang (trans); and Adi Ignatius (trans); Roderick MacFarquhar (foreward)

ISBN 10: 1439149380 / ISBN 13: 9781439149386

Published by Simon & Schuster, New York, 2009

About this Item

Simon & Schuster, May 2009. Hardcover. First Edition / full number line. Near Fine book in a Fine jacket. A few dust stains to top and fore-edge, otherwise pristine inside and out. Not from a library. No remainder mark. Not clipped. xxv + 306 pages. Gives readers a front row seat to the secret inner workings of China's government. It is the story of Premier Zhao Ziyang, who tried to stop the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, and was dethroned for his efforts. Contents: The Tiananmen massacre. The student protests begin ; An editorial makes things worse ; Power struggle ; The crackdown ; The accusations fly ; The campaign against Zhao ; Zhao's talk with Gorbachev -- House arrest. Zhao becomes a prisoner ; The investigative report ; Zhao's lonely struggle -- The roots of China's economic boom. Conflicting views at the top ; An early setback ; Opening painfully to the world ; Finding a new approach ; Zhao and Hu clash ; Playing a trick on a rival ; One step at a time ; The economy gets too hot ; The magic of free trade ; Freedom on the farm ; The coastal regions take off ; Coping with corruption -- War in the Politburo. Hu Yaobang "resigns" ; Zhao walks the line ; The ideologues ; Preparing for the main event -- A tumultuous year. After the Congress ; Panic buying and bank runs ; A series of missteps ; The problem with prices ; Reforms take a hit ; Zhao in retreat ; The campaign to overthrow Zhao -- How China must change. Deng's view on political reform ; Hu's view on political reform ; How Zhao's view evolved ; The old guard fights back ; The way forward -- A brief biography of Zhao Ziyang.

Seller Inventory # RWARE0000001263

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1439149380
• ISBN 13: 9781439149386
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

"Zhao may be more dangerous in death than he was in life."
-- Time

How often can you peek behind the curtains of one of the most secretive governments in the world? Prisoner of the State is the first book to give readers a front row seat to the secret inner workings of China's government. It is the story of Premier Zhao Ziyang, the man who brought liberal change to that nation and who, at the height of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, tried to stop the massacre and was dethroned for his efforts.

When China's army moved in, killing hundreds of students and other demonstrators, Zhao was placed under house arrest at his home on a quiet alley in Beijing. China's most promising change agent had been disgraced, along with the policies he stood for. The premier spent the last sixteen years of his life, up until his death in 2005, in seclusion. An occasional detail about his life would slip out: reports of a golf excursion, a photo of his aging visage, a leaked letter to China's leaders. But China scholars often lamented that Zhao never had his final say.

As it turns out, Zhao did produce a memoir in complete secrecy. He methodically recorded his thoughts and recollections on what had happened behind the scenes during many of modern China's most critical moments. The tapes he produced were smuggled out of the country and form the basis for Prisoner of the State. In this audio journal, Zhao provides intimate details about the Tiananmen crackdown; he describes the ploys and double crosses China's top leaders use to gain advantage over one another; and he talks of the necessity for China to adopt democracy in order to achieve long-term stability.

The China that Zhao portrays is not some long-lost dynasty. It is today's China, where the nation's leaders accept economic freedom but continue to resist political change.

If Zhao had survived -- that is, if the hard-line hadn't prevailed during Tiananmen -- he might have been able to steer China's political system toward more openness and tolerance.

Zhao's call to begin lifting the Party's control over China's life -- to let a little freedom into the public square -- is remarkable coming from a man who had once dominated that square. Although Zhao now speaks from the grave in this moving and riveting memoir, his voice has the moral power to make China sit up and listen.

Review

"A rare first-person account of crisis politics at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party."
--Erik Eckholm, The New York Times

"Until the appearance of this posthumous work, not a single voice of dissent had ever emerged from the [Chinese Communist] party's inner circle . . . Fascinating."
--The Economist

"Zhao speaks from beyond the grave . . . the up-close-and-personal tone [of the book] stands out. Scholars will mine Prisoner of the State for historical nuances."
--Perry Link, coeditor of The Tiananmen Papers

"[T]his book will be of special importance to anyone interested in what happened during the spring of 1989, culminating in the Tiananmen killings of June 3 and 4."
--Jonathan Mirsky, The New York Review of Books