Can China embrace its history and Zhao's memoir?

Abstract

Zhao Ziyang’s recently published Prisoner of the State comes as welcome confirmation that those of us reporting on events in China from 1988 to their tragic denouement on the night of 3-4 June 1989 basically got it right. It also provides fascinating and important insight into the challenges of reform of the kind China has undertaken over the past 30 years and the grand contest it involves, between political leaders who take huge risks on the future shrouded in uncertainty and those who cling doggedly to the verities of the past. Show more