Chinese officials keen to censure Zhao’s memoirs

MEMOIRS of purged Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang are sure to encounter silence and censorship from the Communist Party, afraid of rekindling memories of the bloodshed around Tiananmen Square that accompanied his 1989 downfall.

Zhao, who died in 2005 after years under house arrest, secretly recorded memories of his time at the apex of party power and ousting by hardliners in 1989.

Their publication would whip up a frenzy of public interest in many countries but in China the reformist Zhao is a taboo subject.