Party wants Tiananmen Incident not mentioned

Yao Jianfu, the writer of major Tiananmen butcher’s memoirs was told by authority to suspend publication of the book. June 4 will be an eternal embarrassment for the Party if it is not vindicated.

My book “Tiananmen’s Tremendous Achievements” aims first of all at refuting Li Peng’s justification of Tiananmen Massacre in his memoirs, but does not mention Chen Xitong. It does not mean that Chen is a “small potato” or “puppet” in the incident as Chen wants us to believe. All those who paid attention to the news then are very clear that Chen was one of the major Tiananmen butchers ranking next only to Li Peng. As the then Beijing mayor, he personally directed the entire operation of the massacre. Li Peng told the truth in his memoirs that Chen was chief commander then.

Chen himself clearly enjoyed the limelight given to him, the honor grant him to read the key report to justify the killing (the report to the NPC Standing Committee on the incident) and the promotion into the Politburo. Everybody could see the obvious increase in his arrogance after the Massacre.

Why does he publish his memoirs now to deny his role as chief commander that he willingly performed at that time? Why does he deny that along with Li Peng he lied about the situation to Deng Xiaoping?

He now realized that according to the development in the future, his role as a major Tiananmen butcher will bring eternal shame to him and his offspring.

According to Hong Kong’s Singtao Daily there has been some recent complication. Yao Jianfu, the writer of Chen’s memoirs was called to an interview with an official of his work unit. Yao is unwilling to reveal what was said during the interview and only said, “I cannot talk about it now. Anyway, there is pressure.” Bao Pu, the publisher of the book, said that the books have already been distributed to various bookstores in Hong Kong and its publication will not be affected.

The book entitled “Personal Narration by Chen Xitong: Public Clamor Can Melt Metals, but Truth Remains”. In the memoirs, Chen Xitong said that he was only a “puppy” in he June 4 Incident and denied that he “lied about the situation” to Deng Xiaoping. Does he speak the truth? Obviously not. I pointed out that in my previous posts “Is Tiananmen butcher Chen Xitong remorceful?” and will not repeat here.

Chen described his imprisonment for corruption as the greatest wronged case since the Cultural Revolution. It proves again he is not remorseful. In my previous post, I said that he should feel lucky that he was only punished by a few years’ imprisonment. He deserves the death penalty as he has killed so many young heroes at Tiananmen. He said he regrets the killing, but as a firm communist he opposes the student movement for democracy. Yes, he regrets the killing now but not at that time. He now understand that the Massacre has brought great trouble to himself and the Party. Better imprison those heroes and torture them. As a “firm communist”, he believes so now.

Zhao Ziyang pointed out on page 28 of his memoirs that Li Peng, Li Ximing and Chen Xitong took the lead in determining that the student movement was an anti-Party and anti-socialism in nature. Yes, Chen did not lie about the situation then. As a “firm communist”, he regarded students’ struggle for democracy as an anti-Party and anti-socialism political struggle and told Deng Xiaoping so. He told what he believed then and believes now.

As he is not remorseful, he does not realize that what he believes is a lie. The struggle for democracy is not anti-Party or anti-socialism in nature. Quite a few enlightened people in the Party are striving for democracy now. It is socialism with Chinese characteristics!

The publication of the book closely before the 23rd anniversary of June 4 attracted much interest. When Yao, 80, accepted Singtao’s telephone interview, he confirmed that he was called to have an interview with the leader of his work unit mainly about Chen Xitong’s book, but he was not willing to reveal the contents of the conversations, but only said, “I cannot talk about it now. Anyway, there is pressure.”

Gao Yu, a senior Beijing mediaman reveals in his twitter that the relevant leader “was ordered to request” temporary suspension of the publication of Chen’s memoirs.

Bao Pu, the publisher of the book, told Singtao reporter yesterday that he was not aware of Yao being called to an interview and stressed that the books had already been distributed to various bookstores in Hong Kong for readers to buy at any time.

On May 30, Radio Free Asia called Yuan Mu, State Council’s spokesman at the time of the Massacre, who tried hard to justify the Massacre at that time. Yuan was asked about the June 4 Incident and Chen Xitong’s book. Yuan said, “It is a long story that cannot be made clear in telephone conversations. I do not know things about them.”

Is Tiananmen butcher Chen Xitong remorseful?

“Drop butcher’s knife, become a Buddha at once.” This is a Chinese saying much used in the past and indeed made some bad people turn a new leaf. However it has seldom been used since the communists came to power perhaps because a despot, if a communist, must be an atheist not so easily persuaded as the despots before the communist takeover. However, I agree that even if a despot is a communist, when he is really willing to drop butcher’s knife and turn a new leaf, he can also become a Buddha at once.

Does this saying apply to Chen Xitong, a major Tiananmen butcher whose hands are stained with lots of students’ blood. We shall first ask whether he has dropped butcher’s knife.

He does not prepare his memoirs to show his remorse of the killing or the terror he created in Beijing after the Massacre. He does not reveal the details of how he ordered soldiers to kill and how many they killed and wounded though he had the best access to such information at that time. He did not reveal how he rounded up participants of the democracy movement and tortured them to get information of other participants’ whereabouts.

In fact, Yao Jianfu, the writer of the memoirs based on his interviews with Chen Xitong, told BBC reporter that he met Chen on May 29 and heard Chen say that Chen regarded himself a firm communist and Chen had not changed his basic attitude against June 4 even today.

Certainly, Chen has not dropped butcher’s knife. Chen said killing could be avoided as if he regrets the killing he has done, but as a “firm communist”, he would arrest students and torture them though not kill them.

Why then did he give the interviews and want the memoirs published?

According to Yao, he wants to “restore the truth and set the records straight”.

What records? His role in the Tiananmen crackdown and his corruption crime.

So far Chen has been regarded as a major Tiananmen butcher ranking next only to Li Peng. He certainly does not want to leave such a record in Chinese history and bring shame to his offspring. However, he cannot deny his involvement in the Massacre. He only wants to be regarded as a “small potato” doing what he was ordered to in directing the killing, giving reports on the incident and reading the report to NPC Standing Committee to justify the killing.

If his self-defense were accepted, the name of him, “a small potato”, would perhaps not appear in the history record about that major incident in Chinese history or even if appeared, would not draw much attention. Chen forgets that Li Peng’s description of him being the chief commander of the Massacre was based on the actual role he played in the Massacre instead of some official appointment. Moreover, he cannot deny the facts that he obviously enjoyed the limelight given to him, the honor granted him in reading the report and the promotion he got for his contribution to the Massacre (he was promoted into the powerful Politburo for his role in the Massacre) at that time.

At the time during and after the Massacre, exaggeration of his role in the Massacre would make him very happy, but now things have changed. He knows sooner or later, there will be reassessment of the June 4 incident to regard it as Chinese people’ unprecedented struggle for democracy and denounce Tiananmen butchers.

He publishes the memoirs first of all to shake off his notorious reputation as a major Tiananmen butcher.

However, his arguments are very weak. As mentioned above, he cannot deny he actually played the role as the chief commander of the Massacre.

As for his argument that he has not deceived late paramount leader Deng Xioping into making a wrong decision to send the People’s Liberation Army into the square, Chen was so happy when Yao quoted Zhao Ziyang’s words that “Deng wouldn’t be Deng if he could be easily tricked.” Note, Chen does not deny that he did provide information to deceive Deng, but is only happy that as Deng could not be deceived, his information failed to play a decisive role in causing Deng to make the decision.

Chen’s memoirs conspicuously reflect Tiananmen butchers’ fear of the future. Every year when the anniversary of June 4 approaches, they will be filled with consternation that Tiananmen Protests may be redressed on the anniversary. Even Chinese leaders are filled with worry. They will perhaps be embarrassed again by questions about or demand for redressing the event.

Better a finger off than aye wagging. Redress the event immediately to remove the embarrassment forever. Jiang Zemin cannot do that nor can Hu Jintao. Redressing the event will affect Deng Xiaoping’s reputation. Deng was both Jiang’s and Hu’s mentor. He picked them from obscurity and promoted them to the top. It has been a long-established practice in Chinese politics that one never hurts one’s mentor.

Jiang was clever to find a way out. Chosen as the successor after the Massacre, he certainly incurred the strong hatred arisen from the Massacre as he was benefited by the Massacre though his hands have not been stained by the blood. To give vent to their indignation, people wanted at least one Tiananmen butcher punished for whatever reason. If it was impossible to punish the butcher for the Massacre, find whatever offense in him to punish him.

Beijing deputy mayor Wang Baosen’s suicide gave Jiang the opportunity to punish Chen Xitong. Was the evidence sufficient enough? Perhaps not, but Jiang did not care, nor did people who had been incensed by the Massacre. Anyway, Jiang became more acceptable by punishing Chen.

Publisher Bao Pu and writer Yao Jianfu are perhaps not aware how happy people were when they learnt that Chen, a major Tiananmen butcher, was in trouble as perhaps neither Bao nor Yao lived among those who felt happy when Chen was punished. To be honest, perhaps Chen shall not have been imprisoned for such a long term for his corruption crime, but he deserves the death penalty for his capital crime in the Massacre. He shall regard himself as lucky for being merely imprisoned.

Drop butcher’s knife, become a Buddha at once

The heading is a Chinese saying much used in the past and indeed made some bad people turn a new leaf. However it has seldom been used since the Communist came to power perhaps because a despot, if a communist, must be an atheist not so easily persuaded as the despots before him. However, I agree that even if a despot is a communist, when he is really willing to drop butcher’s knife and turn a new leaf, he can also become a Buddha at once.

Does this saying apply to Chen Xitong, a major Tiananmen butcher whose hands are stained with lots of students’ blood. We shall first ask whether he has dropped butcher’s knife.

He does not prepare his memoirs to show his remorse of the killing or the terror he created in Beijing after the Massacre. He does not reveal the details of how he ordered soldiers to kill and how many they killed and wounded though he had the best access to such information at that time. He did not reveal how he rounded up participants of the democracy movement and tortured them to get information of other participants’ whereabouts.

In fact, Yao Jianfu, the writer of the memoirs based on his interviews with Chen Xitong, told BBC reporter that he met Chen on May 29 and heard Chen say that Chen regarded himself a firm communist and he had not changed his basic attitude against June 4 even today.

Certainly, he has not dropped butcher’s knife. Chen said killing could be avoided, but as a “firm communist”, he would arrest students and torture them though not kill them.

Why then did he give the interviews and wanted the memoirs published?

According to Yao, Yao and he want to “restore the truth and set the records straight”.

What records? His role in the Tiananmen crackdown and his corruption crime.

So far Chen has been regarded as a major Tiananmen butcher ranking next only to Li Peng. He certainly does not want to leave such a record in Chinese history and bring shame to his offspring. However, he cannot deny his involvement in the Massacre. He only wants to be regarded as a “small potato” doing what he was ordered to in directing the killing, giving reports on the incident and reading the report to NPC Standing Committee to justify the killing.

If his self-defense were accepted, the name of him, a small potato, would perhaps not appear in the history record about that major incident in Chinese history or even if appeared, would not draw much attention. Chen forgets that Li Peng’s description of him being the chief commander of the Massacre was based on the actual role he played in the Massacre instead of some official appointment of the post. Moreover, he cannot deny the facts that he obviously enjoyed the limelight given to him at that time, the honor granted him in reading the report and the promotion he got for his contribution to the Massacre (he was promoted into the powerful Politburo for his role in the Massacre).

At the time during and after the Massacre, exaggeration of his role in the Massacre would make him very happy, but now things have changed. He knows sooner or later, there will be reassessment of the June 4 incident to regard it as Chinese people’ unprecedented struggle for democracy and denounce Tiananmen butchers.

He publishes the memoirs first of all to shake off his notorious reputation as a major Tiananmen butcher.

However, his arguments are very weak. I have pointed out that he cannot deny he actually played the role as the chief commander of the Massacre.

As for his argument that he has not deceived late paramount leader Deng Xioping into making a wrong decision to send the People’s Liberation Army into the square, Chen was so happy when Yao quoted Zhao Ziyang’s words that “Deng wouldn’t be Deng if he could be easily tricked.” Note, Chen does not deny that he did provide information to deceive Deng, but is only happy that as Deng cannot be deceived, his information failed to play a decisive role in causing Deng to make the decision.

Chen’s memoirs conspicuously reflect Tiananmen butchers’ fear of the future. Every year when the anniversary of June 4 approaches, they will be filled with consternation that Tiananmen Protests may be redressed on the anniversary. Even Chinese leaders are filled with worry. They will perhaps be embarrassed again by questions about or even the mere mentioning of the event.

Better a finger off than aye wagging. Redress the event immediately to remove the embarrassment forever. Jiang Zemin cannot do that nor can Hu Jintao. Redressing the event will affect Deng Xiaoping’s reputation. Deng was both Jiang’s and Hu’s mentor. He picked them from obscurity and promoted them to the top. It has been a long-established practice in Chinese politics that one never hurts one’s mentor.

Jiang was clever to find a way out. Chosen as the successor after the Massacre, he certainly incurred the strong hatred arisen from the Massacre as he was benefited by the Massacre though his hands have not been stained by the blood. To give vent to their indignation, people wanted one Tiananmen butcher punished for whatever reason. He could not be punished for the Massacre, but find whatever offense in him to punish him.

Beijing deputy mayor Wang Baosen’s suicide gave Jiang the opportunity to punish Chen Xitong. Was the evidence sufficient enough? Perhaps not, but Jiang did not care, nor did people who had been incensed by the Massacre. Anyway, Jiang became more acceptable by punishing Chen.

Publisher Bao Pu and writer Yao Jianfu are perhaps not aware how happy people were when they learnt that Chen, a major Tiananmen butcher, was in trouble as they did not live among those who felt happy when Chen was punished. To be honest, perhaps Chen shall not have been imprisoned for such a long term for his corruption crime, but he deserves the death penalty for his capital crime in the Massacre. He shall regard himself as lucky for being merely imprisoned.