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

Zhao Ziyang

Simon and Schuster, May 19, 2009 - Biography & Autobiography - 336 pages

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.

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 Square protests in 1989 for trying to stop the massacre. Zhao spent the last years of his life under house arrest. An occasional detail about his life would slip out, but scholars and citizens lamented that Zhao never had his final say.

But Zhao did produce a memoir, secretly recording on audio tapes the real story of what happened during modern China’s most critical moments. He provides intimate details about the Tiananmen crackdown, describes the ploys and double crosses used by China’s leaders, and exhorts China to adopt democracy in order to achieve long-term stability. His riveting, behind-the-scenes recollections form the basis of Prisoner of the State.

The China that Zhao portrays is not some long-lost dynasty. It is today’s China, where its leaders accept economic freedom but resist political change. Zhao might have steered China’s political system toward openness and tolerance had he survived. Although Zhao now speaks from the grave, his voice still has the moral power to make China sit up and listen.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - bowedbookshelf - LibraryThing

Zhao Ziyang, former Chairman of the Communist Party in China, was politically sidelined in May 1989 and went into house arrest as a result of his opposition to the government response to students ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Smiley - LibraryThing

The internal workings, and funtionary names, of the Chinese Communist Party can be dizzying but Ziyang's very detailed account, from the General Secretary's seat, of the politics involved in China's ...

About the author

ZHAO ZIYANG was the Premier of China from 1983 until 1987 when he became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, a position he held until 1989 when he was deposed and put under house arrest until his death in 2005.

Adi Ignatius is an American journalist who covered China for The Wall Street Journal during the Zhao Ziyang era. He is currently editor in chief of the Harvard Business Review.

Bao Pu, a political commentator and veteran human rights activist, is a publisher and editor of New Century Press in Hong Kong.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang
• Author: Zhao Ziyang
• Editors: Adi Ignatius, Bao Pu, Renee Chiang
• Translated by: Adi Ignatius, Bao Pu, Renee Chiang
• Contributor: Roderick MacFarquhar
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2009
• ISBN: 1439154074, 9781439154076
• Length: 336 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs; Biography & Autobiography / Political; History / Asia / China