Tiananmen secrets revealed

The memoir of a top Chinese leader who was deposed over his sympathy with 1989 pro-democracy protesters has been published ahead of the anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen crackdown he tried to prevent.

The disclosure of Zhao Ziyang's recollections could prove embarrassing to China ahead of the 20th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown on demonstrators that led to hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths.

Mr Zhao, who died in 2005 after more than 15 years under house arrest, secretly recorded his memoir on tapes and passed them on to friends, according to the book's preface by Adi Ignatius, also the editor of the Harvard Business Review.

"When Mr Zhao died... some of the people who knew of the recordings launched a complex, clandestine effort to gather the materials in one place and then transcribe them for publication," Ignatius wrote.

In one extract from "Prisoner of the State," published in English by US firm Simon and Schuster, Mr Zhao describes his feelings as tanks and soldiers moved towards Tiananmen Square to crush the protests, which had gone on for weeks.

"On the night of June 3, while sitting in the courtyard with my family, I heard intense gunfire," recalled Mr Zhao, who was days away from being deposed as leader of the Communist Party.

"A tragedy to shock the world had not been averted, and was happening after all."

In another passage, Mr Zhao relates a fateful meeting in May 1989 with China's then leader Deng Xiaoping and other members of the political elite, where the decision to impose martial law was taken, leading to the crackdown.

Mr Zhao says Mr Deng laid the blame for the escalation of student protests on him.

"Since there is no way to back down now without the situation spiralling completely out of control, the decision is to move troops into Beijing to impose martial law," he quoted Mr Deng as saying.

"At that moment, I was extremely upset," Mr Zhao said, according to the book, currently available in short supply in Hong Kong but unlikely to be legally published in mainland China.

"I told myself that no matter what, I refused to become the general secretary who mobilised the military to crack down on students."