The publication this year of Prisoner of the State: The Secret
Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang contains important insights into
modern China by the leader who for almost 15 years played a key
role in the management of its economy. Tiananmen Square events
in mid-1989 sidelined Zhao, but party-state governance has
probably worsened since and Zhao’s observations, recorded before
his death in 2005, are useful to any student of China. From the
time of his house arrest in 1989 until his death, Zhao kept a
secret audio journal at his home in Beijing. The memoir, which
consisted of 30 tapes of about one hour's length each,
constitutes a candid and eloquent cri de coeur by an intelligent
and reflective leader, who constantly sought to do his best for
the Chinese people. Zhao's career as a Communist Party
administrator began in Henan Province after the Japanese
invasion in 1937 forced him to leave high school. He made his
reputation as a reformer in Guangdong Province in the 1950s and
1960s when, at only 46 years of age