A rare insider account of China’s corridors of power and a unique and brave journey through the history of modern China.

Li Rui, a longtime critic of the Chinese Communist Party, kept a diary throughout his time as a party official, including the “Black Weekend” of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

In the video below, China expert Frank Dikötter, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, discusses the unique treasure Li Rui’s diary represents, which he describes as one of the most “invaluable sources that one can read on the history of modern China.”

The video transcript is provided below.

See here for the extraordinary backstory that accompanies the diary’s journey from China to the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank at Stanford University. The diary is currently the subject of an ongoing legal dispute between Rui’s widow and Stanford University. [For more on this, see: Diaries Kept by CCP Official Pits Stepdaughter Against Stepmother And Chinese Regime].

Transcript

Frank Dikötter: Li Rui’s diary, in my opinion, is one of the very most invaluable sources that one can read on the history of modern China. It’s a gem.

On the 4th of June 1989 some 100,000 soldiers and 200 tanks converged towards the center of Beijing on Tiananmen Square to grind protesters—people who were in favor of democracy—into the dust. Causing some 2.7 to 3.4 thousand deaths. It was a key event in the history of modern China. If you were to ask me what is the best primary source on this entire period Li Rui’s diary is, I would say, one of the most important documents we’ve got.

Li Rui, born in 1917. Joins the Communist Party of China 20 years later. Goes up the ranks. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, he becomes a senior official. Works as the Secretary of Mao Zedong. He’s purged for 20 years. Eight years of solitary confinement. Comes back to government in the 1980s serving as a key party official in a department that is responsible for selecting all the senior officials for all the key, if you wish, positions within the party (so he knows everyone). And he keeps a diary and he writes down every day what he sees, what he says, who he meets and what they say.

Li Rui’s diary is a true gift. Journalists, dissidents can report what they see on the street. He’s reporting what he saw inside the corridors of power. What you get to see is really the view from the inside out. From inside the party and that’s just unique.

When Li Rui stands on his balcony on the 4th of June 1989 round about midnight and sees the troops not only move in but pretty much kill everything around them—that’s a key passage. What is so fascinating is that he tells you exactly what is happening. Shooting by soldiers against the ordinary people. The crushing of barricades that had been organized by the demonstrators. They put together bicycles and abandoned buses to create some sort of barrier. Of course, armored vehicles would drive straight through it. But the soldiers also shoot at the buildings, including the one where he is. So, just that basically a page right, just that page, this is so full of facts. Well he calls it “Black Weekend” and he writes it in English. So, black weekend is a pretty pretty powerful, I  think, way of describing it.

Li Rui after Tiananmen Square, the massacre, continued to stubbornly press for democracy. He would write one letter after the other throughout the 1990s all the way up to 2012. Letters to key leaders, key party organs, asking for the separation of powers, greater accountability, and ultimately, of course, democracy. In that he was truly a visionary but also very brave. He very much wanted those diaries to end up in the Hoover Institution for future historians to read.