Bao Pu, head of Hong Kong-based New Century Press, said he decided to stop the printing of "The Tiananmen Diary of Li Peng" on June 18 after he was approached a number of times by people whom he refused to identify.

Excerpts of the book shed rare light on the decisions leading up to the crackdown on student-led protests on Tiananmen Square on the night of June 3-4, 1989, which saw hundreds, if not thousands killed.

Bao said "all kinds of players arrived to the scene" after the South China Morning Post found and published excerpts of the book on June 4. Since then, the purported diary has also found its way onto the Internet.

"There is a copyright issue, but that's not exactly a legal issue. There is a moral aspect to it," he told a small seminar Tuesday, when asked to explain why the publication was halted.

The event was originally arranged to mark the launch of the book.

"In defending the public interest, I will take the risk to be blamed as the bad person who steals somebody's diary and publish it without consent," he said.

"But there is no such thing as public interest anymore. All kinds of reviews have been written (on the Internet versions), why would I even risk that kind of accusation of publishing things without the author's consent?"

Bao would not say whether the Internet versions were the same as his book.

The excerpts on the Internet claim to show that Li, known as the "Butcher of Beijing", followed president Deng Xiaoping's orders in clearing Tiananmen Square after six weeks of unprecedented pro-democracy protests.

"To turn around the situation of unrest, I propose martial law," Deng is quoted as saying in a May 19 meeting of top Communist Party leaders.

"We must implement martial law in a stable manner, we must do all we can to limit losses, but we should be prepared to shed some blood."

Bao had earlier told AFP: "The diary clearly indicates that Deng Xiaoping had a major role... and that he wanted to use the military from the very beginning."

Li, who is 81-years-old and reportedly in poor health, argues in the diary that the Tiananmen protests had to be extinguished to save China from chaos.

Bao published the secret memoirs of the 1989 events by Zhao Ziyang, who was purged as Communist Party general secretary for opposing the use of force on the protesters.

Bao is the son of Bao Tong, a former top aide to Zhao who was purged along with him.

earlier related report
Hong Kong steps up security for democracy vote
Hong Kong (AFP) June 23, 2010 - Hong Kong beefed up security on Wednesday as rival demonstrators staged protests ahead of a vote on a controversial plan that promises limited political reforms for the former British colony.

Police surrounded the legislature with metal barricades and scores of policemen moved to keep apart pro-democracy and pro-Bejing activists as lawmakers met to debate the proposals.

After weeks of tense political manoeuvring, the reform plan is likely to be adopted by the legislature although critics complain it does not go far enough and are calling for universal suffrage for the city of seven million people.

"Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong," protesters wrote on the ground outside the Legislative Council building, where lawmakers were due to vote later Wednesday.

With campaigners hoping to draw thousands, authorities are on alert to avoid a repeat of an ugly demonstration in January over a high-speed rail link with mainland China that saw police use pepper spray on some protesters.

"We hope there will be no need to use force, but when necessary, we will deploy sufficient manpower and consider what strategy to adopt to maintain order," a police spokeswoman told AFP.

Lawmakers are voting on a blueprint which would modestly broaden the electoral base for selecting the chief executive and members of the legislature, but falls short of a "one person, one vote" system.

Pro-democracy lawmakers urged officials to postpone the vote, saying there was insufficient time for consultation.

"The government can cause conflict if it rushes the plan through the Legislative Council without a thorough consultation," said Alan Leong, a lawmaker from the Civic Party.

But Stephen Lam, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, insisted it should go ahead, saying: "We believe the vote this time can reflect as well as forge consensus in the society."

Hong Kong, which returned to Beijing in 1997, has a legal and administrative system independent from mainland China but its constitutional development falls under Beijing's control.

Only half the current 60-seat legislature is directly elected, with the rest picked by "functional constituencies" based on professions and mainly comprising pro-Beijing elites.

The city's leader is chosen by an election committee made up of 800 members handpicked by Beijing.

Although a key opposition party has said it will vote for the reforms, many democracy campaigners are opposed to the plan and are demanding a timeline for universal suffrage.

"The reform plan we have today is not what we want. It has nothing to do with democratic progress," said Fred Lam, a leader of the Post 80s group which is campaigning against the proposal.

Under the original reform plan, the government proposed expanding the number of seats in the legislature to 70, with the new seats equally divided between directly elected and functional constituency seats.

It also proposed to increase the number of members on the election committee for picking the chief executive to 1,200.

In a U-turn on Monday, the government revised the reform package by making all 10 proposed new seats directly elected, a necessary concession for securing enough votes from lawmakers for its passage.

The Democratic Party, the city's largest opposition group which proposed the modifications and holds the swing vote, said it would support the revised plan -- making its adopting a virtual certainty.

Beijing has said that, at the earliest, universal suffrage can be ushered in for the election of Hong Kong's chief executive in 2017 and for the legislature in 2020.

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