Contents
The Tiananmen Papers combines various government documents with editor’s notes and footnotes to illustrate the situation within the Chinese Communist Party surrounding the time of the protests. The documents are arranged in a chronological manner, starting in the beginning of April until late June 1989. It portrays a sense of factionalism and power struggle within the Party, in which the reformist faction is headed by General Secretary Zhao Ziyang and the conservative faction by Premier Li Peng. Zhao appears to have a conciliatory attitude towards the students’ demands, deeming the protests to be mostly patriotic. Li has more of a hardline approach, and attempts to convince paramount leader Deng Xiaoping that the protests are causing “turmoil” and that the students are “networking.” The book portrays Deng, the most prominent Party elder, as the main decision maker of the party. Though it appears he “did not play this role happily”, the internal division in the Party required a decision maker. In the end he sides with the conservative faction and decides to dismiss Zhao, appoint Jiang Zemin as the new premier, declare martial law, and to clear the square by force.
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