HONG KONG—A new book titled “The Course of Reform” based on Zhao Ziyang’s secret audio recordings hit bookstore shelves in Hong Kong on May 29. According to publishing experts, the book will be a runway best-seller with 14,000 copies of this first edition already sold-out. Sources claim the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has sent many agents into Hong Kong to purchase the books. In an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times, publisher Bao Pu addressed some key issues surrounding the book’s publication and also for the first time released photos from inside the book.
Bao learned about the audio recordings not long after Zhao Ziyang passed away in January in 2005. Afterwards he set up a publishing house in Hong Kong in order to “publish the book finally.”
After four years full of troubles and trials, Bao has realized his dream today.
Bao said that he had kept the whole thing low key no matter what happened. The book’s publication had been kept secret until just recently. He felt he had been put under surveillance even before the book was announced.
Bao said he had received many calls from strangers calling themselves reporters. And his computer was attacked many times by viruses.
Bao was very confident about the book. “Although most parts were not written in the first person, the book is still very readable. Bits of inside information from that time makes it appealing. In addition the book is about Zhao Ziyang, a special historic figure who was sacked by the CCP leaders because of his refusal to go against the students in Tianamen,” he said.
Bao said that Du Daozhen, a reformist and a former chief of the General Administration of Press and Publications in the late 1980s, along with three other persons, had played an important role in encouraging Zhao to carry out the secret audio recording process. “It was those people that kept these historical recordings. They did a great job.”
“The book provides many valuable insights,” added Bao. “Its greatest value is that it fills in a historical void from that time. Most importantly it provides a new perspective on the incidents leading up to the massacre on June 4th. The reason the CCP gave for the incident was a flimsy excuse. It is now impossible for the CCP to obliterate the facts of history.”
Read original article in Chinese.
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