A new book, Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang, to be released Tuesday, documents the dissent from China’s former leader over the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989. Zhao Ziyang, China’s leader from 1987 until a month before the massacre, recorded 30 hours of audio before his 2005 death claiming, among other things, that China’s leadership never legitimately voted to establish martial law on May 20, 1989, 2 weeks before the infamous crackdown. Seen as sympathetic to the student protesters and pro-democracy, Zhao’s views on the martial law and crackdown were, and still are, suppressed by the Chinese government and caused the former Premier and Party General Secretary to be banished from public life. Zhao was removed from all of his positions in China’s government following controversial statements in May, 1989 and until his death, was placed under heavily surveillance and house arrest. The new book offers Zhao’s views on the era, translated from secret cassette tapes left to his family and close friends. The Wall Street Journal has a fantastic article on the Zhao memoir and offers some great insight into one of the best kept secrets in Chinese history.