The June 4th Massacre

Zhao (1989) looking forlorn and tired from struggling with the powers that be, trying to persuade the student protesters to go home before the tanks come in.

Finally found a single copy of Prisoner of State, the secret memoirs of Zhao ZiYang, China's disgraced ex-Premier. Despite the central government's attempt to scrub him out of public memory, the recently published memoirs have established him as the most rational and progressive cadre,  purged because of his liberal views in support of peaceful measures.

Zhao even had the foresight to secretly record and smuggle the audio memoirs out of his home during house arrest, which saw him to the end of his days. This is an eye-opening and frankly depressing book on the politics and interactions within a government  highly closed off from the outside world. It is absolutely terrible that so many innocent people were killed and injured due basically to a handful of old men who were afraid of losing face. What's more, China was moving well in the direction of political reform and opening all its doors to the world.