World

Book About China Is Denounced

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 6, 2001 / 1:14 PM EST / CBS

China's foreign minister denounced as "sheer fabrications" documents published in the United States that portray Chinese leaders as fighting over how to handle 1989's pro-democracy protests.

Tang Jiaxuan issued China's highest-level attack yet on The Tiananmen Papers, a book published in January and said to be based on records smuggled out of China by a disaffected civil servant.

The documents, Tang said Tuesday, are "sheer fabrications intentionally engineered by some people out of very vicious political motives."

"Anybody is doomed to failure who attempts through vicious means of made-up stories and rumors to reach their ulterior political motives," said Tang.

The Tiananmen Papers portrays a Communist Party elite, led by the late Deng Xiaoping, as deeply divided over whether to negotiate with protesters or crush them.

The book's American translators say it is based on intelligence reports and records of meetings and phone conversations.

The protests centered on Tiananmen Square mobilized millions in a popular challenge to communist rule.

Dissident Freed

A leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests who was rearrested in 1996 has been granted early release from prison.

That's according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, which speculates that Guo Haifeng's release may be intended to boost Beijing's chances at hosting the Olympics in 2008.

Guo was first jailed in 1989, on charges of trying to set an armored vehicle on fire, and was sentenced in 1991 to four years for "counterrevolutionary sabotage."

Paroled two years later, Guo was back in jail in 1996, this time sentenced to five years for "hooliganism." Specifically, he was accused of seducing six women with talk of love or buying houses.

(Source: AP)

The government ordered troops to end the protests, and hundreds - possibly thousands - of people were killed in the June 3-4, 1989, assault.

China has never provided a full account of the crackdown or credible figures for casualties and arrests.

Speaking in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, adjacent to Tiananmen Square, Tang reiterated the government defense of the crackdown as necessary to ensure political stability and economic development.

His comments, carried live on state television, would probably be the first ention many Chinese heard of The Tiananmen Papers.

Chinese newspapers have not reported on the book, although news of it has entered the country via foreign radio and television broadcasts and the Internet.

Tang declined to say whether he read the book or whether it was discussed by the leadership.

Tang's comments came as the 2,900 delegates of the National People's Congress gathered in Beijing for their annual two-week meeting at the Great Hall of the People.

The meeting showcases China's ethnic diversity, with delegates from Inner Mongolia wearing fur-lined jackets, Manchu women sporting elaborate headdresses, and men from the Yunnan Naxi minority standing out in purple, velvet jackets.

Delegates were given cartoon-illustrated handbooks on the rule of law as they arrived in the capital on Monday.

Beijing residents and shopkeepers are largely unimpressed by the parliamentary pageant, which has brought parts of the city to a virtual standstill.

Shopkeepers in the area are barred from using any fire-prone materials, such as paint or welding equipment, while the meeting continues.

"What can we do?" groused one store owner. "This is the Communist Party and if we want to stay here and do business, we just do as we're told."

Taxi drivers losing money because of roadblocks and barricades are also unhappy.

"Just look at them (the delegates), they're all rubbish," said one cabbie. "They just come here on taxpayers' money and spend most of the time shopping."