After receiving his master’s degree in Economics from Chinese People’s University in 1985, Cheng Xiaonong went to work in the laboratory office of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and the China Economic Restructuring Research Institute, where he was eventually appointed to the position of laboratory director and vice researcher. He received his Ph.D in sociology from Princeton University and has become the chief editor of Contemporary China Studies. When interviewed recently by New Tang Dynasty Television, Dr. Cheng briefly mentioned the false charges against Zhao Ziyang as a CIA spy.

Reassignment of the Army Was Done In Secret

Cheng said: “Before the Tiananmen Massacre [of June 1989], Deng Xiaoping and a group of inner-party senior statesmen — including Deng Yingchao, Peng Zhen and Chen Yun — met in private and decided to send 50,000 soldiers to surround Beijing. They did not hesitate to use violent suppression to protect the ruling power of the Chinese Communist Party and they hid this procedure from the populace. They also kept these actions secret from the CCP Political Bureau and the Political Bureau standing committee.

“Deng Xiaoping originally planned for the army to arrive at Beijing on the night of May 16, and convened a session of the Political Bureau Standing Committee regarding the order of martial law and arrival of the army. Deng did not expect that Zhao Ziyang would disapprove of this procedure, as Zhao had not been let in on the decisions. Zhao’s attitude on May 16 was similar to Gorbachev’s regarding the student movement at the time [in the former Soviet Union], which caused Deng Xiaoping to think Zhao could force the Political Bureau Standing Committee session to discuss the implementation of martial law, which could have led to criticism. Thus, the Political Bureau Standing Committee session was postponed until May 17.

“On May 19, 1989, Chinese communist politician Yang Shangkun, when interviewing the armed forces and cadres, explained: ‘The army was following the orders of Deng Xiaoping to surround Beijing, the call for martial law was never passed by the Standing Committee. Because of this we were very passive when we entered Beijing.’ ”

Cheng continued: “The Political Bureau Standing Committee never knew that we entered Beijing on May 16, so our presence was technically illegal. Deng arbitrarily transferred several hundred thousand soldiers to surround the capitol. The fact that the Political Bureau and the Standing Committee were not informed violates the constitution; moreover, it was practically a coup d’etat.

“On May 19, Deng Xiaoping forced Zhao to resign and forcibly passed the so-called martial law order. This legalized the CCP’s order of the army to surround the capitol, but also destroyed the party’s image internationally and domestically. The CCP always hoped to find a way to regain its reputation, and the way they felt was acceptable was to bring a false charge against Zhao and accuse him of being a foreign spy. If they could achieve this, then the coup d’etat might be justified as an action to save the country from foreign interference.

“At the beginning of July 1989, Public Security Minister Wang Fang gave a speech to a conference of internal high-ranking officials. The purpose of the speech was to investigate charges that Zhao was a CIA spy. The basis for the charge was that Zhao, through Yang Baotong and the China Economic Restructuring Research Institute and George Soros’ reform and open policy foundation in China, had worked with Soros. Wang Fang said that Soros’ foundation was part of the CIA, and since Soros worked for the CIA, Zhao must have been a spy.

“The CCP didn’t have any evidence at the time, primarily because the charge was completely fabricated, which was typical behavior for the CCP. Several of our colleagues were arrested and locked up in Qinchen jail. The goal of the arrests was to find information in their confessions that could later be used to build a case against Zhao.

“After the information that Wang Fang leaked had reached overseas, in mid-July 1989, a Washington Post reporter of Chinese descent reported the following in the Washington Post: ‘George Soros was extremely shocked and angered to hear of the accusations against Zhao. He wrote Deng Xiaoping a letter to explain that firstly, in America, the CIA is a government department and merchants and financiers pay taxes to support this government apparatus. That there is no way that Zhao could receive payment from the U.S. government, and it was absurd to say that he had ever worked for the CIA. In addition, Soros made it clear that his reform and open policy foundation was originally controlled by the Chinese Safety Department. The person in charge of this foundation was the retired vice minister of the Chinese Safety Department, Ling Yun. If the foundation was a part of the CIA, then it would have to follow that the Chinese Safety Department was working for the CIA.

“If Deng Xiaoping had not been so intent on framing him, Zhao Ziyang could have lived the last 16 years of his life as a free man.