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

Reviews:

excerpt courtesy Visual Bookshelf
by Daniel Hammond

The book will appeal for two different reasons. First, as an assessment of China's reform process and the response to the 1989 protests Prisoner is damning and fascinating. Second, as a broader window on the policy making process and political machinations of the Chinese elite this book is extremely valuable.

The way Zhao presents the events running up to the protests in 1989 and subsequent crackdown presents the Chinese leadership in a less than favourable light. Policy can be interpreted as incoherent with the reformers being caught out by the machinations of the conservatives. At the same time the leaders show a degree of isolation from ordinary people and a violent conclusion is almost inevitable. Zhao's reflections give the impression that the Tiananmen massacre was the violent conclusion of a palace coup by the conservatives.

Discussing the wider reform process and the run up to 1989 Zhao's story adds to our understanding of the difficulty in getting reforms past conservatives in the leadership. Above all this hovers Deng, at times seeming all poweful, at other times the hostage of secretaries or family members. As an insight to how China's elite worked at the time Prisoner is very valuable.

If you're not interested in China then Prisoner is probably not going to appeal. It should though. Tiananmen and the reform process have had a profound impact on not just China but the rest of the world. It's in everyones interests to understand what happened and how China might develop in the future