lesson from history and try their best to avoid similar incidents from taking place, or they should do their best to contain [civil unrest] to the smallest scale so that they would not affect the work [of the Communist Party] adversely". Aborted publication Three days before the book was due to have been released, New Century Press aborted the launch, saying on its website: "According to copyright information provided by relevant institutions and Hong Kong copyright laws, we have to cancel the publication of the Tiananmen Diary of Li Peng, which is originally scheduled for June 22, due to copyright reasons". Founder Bao Pu said he was approached by unnamed "relevant institutions" which provided him with copyright information. News of the impending publication of the text broke on the eve of the 21st anniversary, giving the authorities enough time to react and block the release. Bao explained that he had been prepared to publish the text despite the ambiguous copyright status of works by party leaders, which are subject to approval by the Politburo. He said: "If the author, who has a certain official post, wants to publish something like a diary, he really has to go through the publication procedure to get approval... [However,] It isn't defined whether it's legal or illegal to publish outside China." Cai Yongmei, editor-in-chief of Open Magazine in Hong Kong, believes Beijing intervened because the book would have been a great embarrassment to Hu and Wen. "Li Peng has been eager to publish the book since 2004 or he would not have penned it. The Wall Street Journal commented that, although the publisher dodged questions about the reason for the cancellation, he blamed initial leaks in the press for drawing undue attention which eventually contributed to the cancellation of the project. Responses The SCMP quoted Perry Link saying: "The responsibility for 4 June haunts all of these people and none of them want to take it. Even Li Peng ... doesn't want to be seen as having blood on his hands... None of the leaders, Li Peng, Yang Shangkun, Deng Xiaoping, wanted to be viewed as butchers. They were embarrassed about the massacre and embarrassed about the prospect of the massacre, they didn't want their own names associated with the bloodshed." Gao Yu said that Li was trying to shirk his responsibility: "Li Peng was taking the hard-line position and whatever explanation is given,