Beijing Moves Propaganda War Into Bookstores

Chinese authorities, waging a mighty propaganda war to justify having sent in the army against unarmed protesters, rushed a paperback history of the pro-democracy movement to bookshops Wednesday.

Hundreds of copies of the slim, pale-yellow volume, titled “The Flag Must Be Bright to Go Against the Turmoil,” were delivered to stores in central Beijing.

The book gives an official history of the demonstrations that erupted after the death in April of Hu Yaobang, the former reformist leader of the Communist Party. The government says the protests degenerated into a counterrevolutionary rebellion.

The book covers events up to and including Premier Li Peng’s May 20 decision to impose martial law on the capital.

Witnesses and diplomats say many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people died in the assault. But the Chinese government says about 300 died, most of them soldiers.