Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang are the memoirs of the former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, who was sacked after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The book was published in English in May 2009, to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the clearing of the square by tanks on June 4, 1989. It is based on a series of about thirty audio tapes recorded secretly by Zhao while he was under house arrest in 1999 and 2000. Co-editor Adi Ignatius pinpoints a meeting held at Deng Xiaoping's home on May 17, 1989, less than three weeks before the suppression of the Tiananmen protests, as the key moment in the book. When Zhao argued that the government should look for ways to ease tensions with the protesters, two conservative officials immediately criticized him. Deng then announced he would impose martial law. Zhao commented: "I refused to become the General Secretary who mobilized the military to crack down on students." In the last chapter, Zhao praises the Western system of parliamentary democracy and says that it is the only way China can solve its problems of corruption and a growing gap between the rich and poor. Key excerpts Prior to publication, a number of newspapers and journals have published key extracts of Zhao's reflections on a range of topics: On Tiananmen Square By insisting on my view of the student demonstrations and refusing to accept the decision to crack down with force, I knew what the consequences would be and what treatment I would receive... I knew that if I persistently upheld my view, I would ultimately be compelled to step down. On the night of June 3, while sitting in the courtyard with my family, I heard intense gunfire. A tragedy to shock the world had not been averted, and was happening after all. On democracy They (i.e. the democratic systems of socialist nations) are all just superficial. They are not systems in which the people are in charge, but rather are ruled by a few or even a single person. In fact, it is the Western parliamentary democratic system that has demonstrated the most vitality. It seems that this system is currently the best one available. On Deng Xiaoping Deng had always stood out among the party elders as the one who emphasised the means of dictatorship. He