Prisoner of the State

Title: Prisoner of the State – The Secret Journal of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang

Author: Zhao Ziyang

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2009 (First)

ISBN: 978-1-84737-697-8

Pages: 287

China possesses a great cultural and scientific heritage spanning thousands of years which is the world’s envy. Unfortunately, the country now reels under an autocratic regime in which a bunch of hardened geriatrics control the fate of a billion people like what they should do, what they should buy and even what they should think. This is no exaggeration, but only the candid assessment one gets from this book written by a former premier of the state and general secretary of the all powerful Chinese Communist Party. Zhao Ziyang’s rise to prominence was quick, like in an autocracy when you happen to have powerful backers. Ziyang was elevated to the post of Prime Minister and then the party’s general secretary by Deng Xiaoping, the man who ruled China singlehandedly after the death of the tyrannical leader, Mao Zedong. The author paved the way for economic reforms in the country, but the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 ended up in a tussle between him and Deng Xiaoping who was not prepared to concede even an iota of democratic freedom to the people. He was removed from all official positions, placed under house arrest till his death in 2005, without any judicial procedure. This book is his journal under incarceration in which he audiotaped his experiences and thoughts and cleverly concealed them among his children’s toys. It came to light only after his death, waking up the world to a ringside view of the power politics and the farce that is going on in China in the name of socialism. Rule of Law is unheard of, and the party goes by the maxim of Rule by (a few) Men. The book is translated by Bao Pu, Renee Chiang and Adi Ignatius with a foreward by Roderick MacFarquhar.

The end of 1980s had been a bad time for China. Half-hearted reform measures initiated earlier ended up in inflation and widespread corruption. But the hardliners in the party were opposed to any suggestion of giving more freedom to the masses. Hu Yaobang, who was the party general secretary and an ardent reformer, but was later removed from office as he had ruffled some feathers of the coterie of elders in the party on whom all power was concentrated, died on April 15, 1989. His memorial services, attended by a large number of students suddenly turned into mass demonstrations attended even by people in other sectors like government departments and industry. China’s autocratic leaders panicked and issued a strongly worded condemnation in a People’s Daily editorial on April 26 with the approval of Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader, accusing the students of indulging in anti-party, anti-socialist activities. This infuriated the students who managed to stage hunger strikes in Tiananmen Square on May 15 onwards in connection with the visit of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet reformist leader. Against Ziyang’s opposition, Deng and others imposed martial law in Beijing. However, the army found it difficult to move in, as they were blocked at many places by old women and children. Ziyang’s opposition to tow the official line resulted in his ouster as the party’s general secretary. As the world watched in horror, tanks rolled into the square on June 4, pulverizing the protesting students under its wheels, thereby brutally crushing a popular revolt that threatened to shake the communist regime to the core.

We get a clear perception of the pitfalls centralized planning entails in any country by the examples illustrated by Ziyang. When he led a delegation to England and France, he was baffled by the clever transformation of adversities to advantages designed by those Western economies. The south of France had poor rainfall and hence not fit for grain cultivation. In such circumstances, Mao’s China would have gone for ‘changing the conditions defined by heaven and earth’ by investing in huge irrigation projects, but nevertheless ending up with poor yield. The French farmers cultivated grapes in the region and the wine industry made them very rich. Similarly, England employed animal husbandry on its western coast, doing wheat in the east. Ziyang did his homework and encouraged planting cotton in Shandong province of China where large scale irrigation programs had wiped out a large chunk of investment in a vain bid to produce more grain. Shandong developed a lucrative cotton trade as a result and excess cotton seed was converted to fertilizer to augment wheat production in other parts of the country.

The author presents in chilling detail how the notions of collective responsibility and accountability had collapsed in China’s communist regime. We read about the Polit Bureau feigning impotence in overturning the decision of the supreme leader, Deng Xiaoping in denouncing the student demonstrations. Had the Polit Bureau taken the decision to go forward, ignoring Deng’s stature, the situation would have eased. The supreme leader’s decisions also were sometimes taken by his children as we see occasions when his daughter Maomao dictating to party bosses how to word official resolutions without seeming to appear that Deng was against the youth.

Even with many years of experience of working in the party in various positions, the readers note with sympathetic amusement at Ziyang’s naïve assumption that the Communist Party would respect rules and regulations while removing one of the highest leaders like him. Here, we discover the scant regard to law exhibited by the party’s clique of functionaries who stick around Deng. If an official falls foul of the great man, he is doomed – summarily. Ziyang alleges that Deng allowed people who were not members of the polit bureau standing committee to vote on a resolution to oust Ziyang  who himself was not invited for the meeting. The party’s judicial process is also upside down as the author was first ousted from his post and then an investigation was called for. After three years of such a travesty of justice, it was abandoned, but he was not reinstated.

The book, even though noted for its impromptu narration of political events, is not interesting to read. It is riddled with dull diction, and unimaginative account of experiences. Sincerety and honesty of objective does not always translate to appealing style of writing. Long lists of committees appearing in the book and administrative mechanisms that plague Chinese society is a torture for the general reader.

The book is not recommended.

Rating: 2 Star