Just before the 100th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s birthday, former prime minister of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Peng, said that the government at the time took swift action to handle the June 4 democratic movement in 1989 with the full support of Deng Xiaoping and other senior officials of the CCP.

Li Peng’s article published in the Communist Party magazine Seeking Truth is a much different viewpoint than other senior officials have stated about the incident.

“In the spring and summer of 1989, a serious political disturbance took place in China. With the vision of boldness from the great revolutionary politician, comrade Deng Xiaoping - along with other party elders - gave the leadership their firm and full support to put down the political disturbance using forceful measures," said Li.

Li’s article is believed to be an attempt to clear his name and shift the responsibility of the brutal suppression of the democratic movement to Deng Xiaoping and other senior officials of CCP.

Li did not specifically name any senior officials in the article but is maybe holding out if he becomes the key person for ordering the crackdown in the future.

Li’s breaking from official party lines by exposing the role of Deng Xiaoping and other senior officials played in Tiananmen Massacre and using the word “forceful measures” has drawn much attention.

Wen Jiabao said recently about the June 4 bloodbath that, “In China, a political disturbance occurred and at that time the Party Central Committee rallied the party and the Chinese people together. With the policies we adopted we successfully stabilized the situation resulting in reform and opening up in China.”

Wen’s wording is the consensus among the Political Bureau, including Chinese leader Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Wen’s handling of the June 4 incident has been low key which many believe is to avoid any international negativity.

As prime minister at the time, Li Ping, sent orders to crackdown on the students on May 19, 1989. Many believe the article is an attempt to shun responsibility and is a reflection of his dissatisfaction of the new government leaders.

The article comes out after a political tug-of-war that started with the Political Bureau barring the publication of Li Peng’s memoirs and continued with the Central Propaganda Department producing the video “The Process of the June 4 Disturbance” disclosing that Yang Babing ordered the open fire on the students thus clearing the names of Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Zeng Qinghong who all held key positions at the time. Many believe that Li is afraid of becoming the “main culprit” of the Tiananmen Massacre and so he decided to use Deng’s birth to abdicate his responsibility.