BEIJING: A manuscript of ousted Chinese Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang’s thoughts has stirred controversy even before full publication, with its author saying a Hong Kong paper took from it without his approval.

The manuscript records the late Zhao’s memories before 1989, when anti-government demonstrations convulsed China till a bloody army crackdown, and his thoughts on China’s economic and political evolution, the author Zong Fengming told a small group of reporters in his Beijing home on Friday.

Zhao was China’s premier and then party general-secretary from 1980 to 1989, when the party patriarch Deng Xiaoping dismissed him for resisting the crackdown.

Zhao died in January 2005 after years in secluded house arrest. But Zong visited Zhao regularly as a qigong meditation coach and after his visits wrote down purged leader’s musings.

Zhao told Zong he prepared a final statement on 1989, and the full manuscript records his memories of the crisis, Zong said.

Zong said unauthorised excerpts of his manuscript have appeared in the Hong Kong Economic Journal in recent days, prompting him to speak about his book after years of secretive preparation.

The small furore over Zhao’s words was another reminder of how jealously China guards its past, turning even scraps of insiders’ memories into treasure.

Leaders’ official memoirs are scrubbed of potentially sensitive information, and purged leaders like Zhao are largely erased from history — making Zong’s notes from over a hundred conversations much sought-after.

“He was an historic figure even after he was no longer party general-secretary,” said Zong. “Even under house arrest, he upheld justice,” he said of Zhao.

The Hong Kong paper’s editor-in-chief Chan King Cheung said when asked by Reuters about Zong’s claim: “We received the manuscript from what we believe are reliable sources. We have no further comment to make at this stage.”

Zong speaks with the thick twang of Henan, his home province in central China where Zhao was also born. The two men were born months apart and forged a friendship through years of guerilla warfare and political organisation, Zong said. “We even slept in the same bed,” he said.

While Zong remained a researcher and lowly official, Zhao rose to the pinnacle of power and steered through many of China’s first economic reforms in the 1980s. After Zhao was purged, Zong resumed their friendship.

His manuscript has lured others before.

A Hong Kong-based journalist now detained in China on spying charges, Ching Cheong, was tricked to the mainland by promises of access to Zong’s manuscript, Ching’s wife said at the time.

Zong said Ching had previously asked to see the manuscript, but Zong said he refused and had nothing to do with Ching’s arrest in April 2005.

Photocopies of another memoir of China’s torrid pre-1989 politics by Deng Liqun, an aged leftist official scathingly critical of Zhao, have circulated in Beijing in recent months after authorities withdrew circulation of a tightly restricted ‘internal’ edition.

Zong, a sprightly 86-year old, said he hopes his manuscript will be published, but he refused to be drawn on his plans.—Reuters