The Tiananmen Papers

This book doesn't contain a single passage of scholarly content, just fabricated "internal documents" published as factual evidence. All the information in this book came from an anonymous source and pushes a Western narrative that completely ignores the facts: there are no photographs or videos of massacres of students, but there are photos and videos of PLA soldiers being impaled, beaten to death, and burned alive by supposed "pro-democracy student protestors", whose crowds included a considerable number of opportunistic saboteurs, violent separatists, and foreign government operatives.

This is an important window into the decision-making process of the Communist government in Beijing. That the rulers in Beijing would decide to kill thousands of their best and brightest students continues to give the world the true test of their character.

A few of the reviewers have mentioned that the book contains nothing new. That may be the case for people who have studied the situation in depth or were there at the time. But lots of Americans, like me, only knew what they saw on the news or read in the papers. For us, the book is a real eye-opener with many surprises.I also disagree with the characterization of this book as "dry." I couldn't put it down. If the expository narrative bits weren't in there and the book consisted of the documents only, it might have been tiresome after a while. But whoever put this together added just enough background to maintain the sense of tension and gravity. It's very suspenseful--a neat trick considering the one thing everybody already knows is how the story ended.

This is either a stunning exposé or a masterly forgery. Even its editors are not entirely sure which it is because it is impossible to verify the authenticity of the documents presented here, which the compiler - who uses a pseudonym - delivered to a leading American Sinologist. The documents purport to record the most secret deliberations of China's leaders, as well as the information upon which they based their 1989 decision to unleash armed forces against the peaceful demonstrators who occupied Tiananmen Square. After careful checking, the editors deemed the documents authentic because they possess "an internal coherence, richness and human believability that would be impossible to fake." The Chinese government denounced them as forgeries, as was to be expected, true or false. We [...] believe the documents have enough verisimilitude to offer an instructive, useful picture of how China's system works. Reading these, it is impossible to escape the reflection that the current regime is doomed by its very rigidity and betrayed by its own strength.

The book will tell you why the tragic end of the student movement in 1989 was unavoidable. Although the authenticity and the selection of some details in the book are questionable, it appears to be a largely credible collection. Wait for the Chinese version to come in the spring...

Never has there been a book more vivid and truthful at presenting the Chinese government, its top decision making process, and the agitation, determinations, intelligence, manipulations, and openness of its leaders. This is more than just a recording on the Tiananmen Turmoil, but a chronicle from which useful reflections can always be drawn, especially now. If the Chinese Government, can be brave as to accept this book, repents its ill-doing of the past, and embrace more political openness and changes in the future, we, 1.3 billion brothers and sisters, will be the happiest people on earth. The more I read, the more I understand, and the more I pity our leaders, for their situations were so critical, futures so uncertain, and with all those uncertainties, had to decide nevertheless the directions of a whole country. You, from this book, will learn how human our leaders are, and how little we can complain, for us in the same situation would have done worse. This is a great book, and those stated above are just some of my own judgments made upon these very wonderful information whose authencity there should be no doubts, but as all unbiased information are, you will make your own judgments too, which in comparison with the opinions here, would only make the book more interesting. But only to be aware, this is a long book with many details that you might not be very interested at, go to the New York Times Web site, and the excerpts they have there might be better.