Deng Daughter Doubts Dad Acted Alone
An interesting Tiananmen-related story broke over the weekend as the daughter of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping told a Hong Kong radio station Sunday that the decision to roll tanks and order troops into Tiananmen Square during the infamous ‘89 democracy riots was not solely her father’s. Deng Lin, Deng’s eldest daughter told a state-run radio station, “It was the leadership that made a collective decision. You shouldn’t say that one person was responsible for it.” While 17 years after the event that remains China’s most taboo topic of conversation, it is still unclear who made the order to meet the student protest with such force. Although Deng was China’s “supreme” or “paramount” leader at the time of the “crackdown,” ultimately the decision to crush the riots rests with him. But in defining the legacy of Deng Xiaoping, many writers and now, his own daughter, have hinted the Deng was very disturbed by what happened at Tiananmen Square. A Deng biographer has claimed that a source close to the leader said that Deng had characterized the Tiananmen incident as a “botched military operation” and was appalled with his generals. Furthermore, sources say that Deng chose Jiang Zemin over Li Peng as his successor because Li had become notoriously linked with the Tiananmen incident. China’s Communist Party has yet to issue a detailed report of the event, and until it does, these questions regarding the Tiananmen incident will linger.
•NYT: Deng Xiaoping Obituary 2/20/97