Exclusive: Publication of China crackdown memoirs halted

Bao Pu, publisher of a memoir of former Chinese premier Li Peng, listens to a question during an interview by Reuters in Hong Kong in this June 4, 2010 file photo. Bao has been forced to halt the much-awaited publication of former Chinese premier Li Peng's memoirs of watershed events leading up to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protests on June 17, 2010 because he did not have copyright ownership.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Hong Kong book publisher has been forced to halt the much-awaited publication of former Chinese premier Li Peng's memoirs of controversial events leading up to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

About 20,000 Chinese-language copies of "The Tiananmen Diary of Li Peng" had initially been scheduled to go on sale in Hong Kong on June 22, but Bao Pu, of New Century Press, stopped the presses on Friday because he did not have copyright ownership.

Reuters obtained an advance copy of the memoirs in which Li reveals that China's revered reformist leader, Deng Xiaoping, said the government had to "spill some blood" to quell the June 4, 1989, protests.

A source with ties to the leadership in Beijing who requested anonymity said Li had never consented to Bao publishing his memoirs, written in 2004 but suppressed by current Chinese leaders who seek to erase from public memory images of troops and tanks crushing the student-led movement.

"Relevant institutions provided information related to copyright (ownership) before publication. According to Hong Kong copyright laws, we have no choice but to scrap our original publication plans," Bao told Reuters by telephone from the former British colony on Saturday.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, but retains a high degree of autonomy under the handover agreement.

Bao declined to say who approached him with proof of copyright ownership. He would not comment when asked how much losses he estimated he would incur and what he planned to do with books already printed.

By moving to stop publication, the authorities appear to be giving credence to the authenticity of the memoirs. But Chinese officials have made no public comments to either confirm or deny the memoirs' authenticity.

"I'm surprised by the level of mobilization," Bao said, referring to Chinese intervention to stop publication.

Troops mobilized under a martial law proclamation shot and killed hundreds of protesters and bystanders around Tiananmen Square in Beijing, according to witnesses and rights groups.

Bao defended his earlier decision to publish the memoirs without Li's consent.

"We have reason to believe that Li Peng himself wrote this book and is willing to have it published, but his publication rights were deprived by a third party -- the Communist Party's Politburo," Bao said, referring to the Party's 25-member decision-making body.

Hong Kong "laws do not regulate whether publication under such conditions is permitted," Bao said.

"The memoirs have historical value and significance and the public have a willingness to know. Hence, it's very natural for us to decide to publish them. It was a prudent decision."

Last year, Bao dropped a political bombshell when he released secret memoirs of the 1989 events by Zhao Ziyang, who was purged as Communist Party general secretary with Premier Li's help for being too soft on the protesters.

Zhao spent more than 15 years under house arrest until his death in 2005 and had to secretly record his memoirs on cassette tapes which were smuggled out of the country, transcribed and published in Hong Kong.

Bao is the son of Bao Tong, Zhao's top aide in 1989 and the most senior Chinese official jailed for sympathizing with protesters. Bao Tong was imprisoned for seven years and remains under tight police surveillance in Beijing.

A Chinese editor with ties to senior officials told Reuters that highly restricted "internal" copies of Li's memoirs were circulated among a small circle of officials earlier this year.

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie)