Black Hands of Beijing: Lives of Defiance in China's Democracy Movement

After the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, China's communist leaders scapegoated ``black hands,'' individuals portrayed as sinister conspirators who supposedly manipulated the masses. Based on scores of interviews with participants in China's democracy movement, this dramatic, absorbing chronicle interweaves the lives of three ``black hands.'' Activist Wang Juntao and social scientist Chen Ziming edited a moderate protest journal and led a ``think tank'' that unsuccessfully tried to mediate the conflict between student protesters and the Communist Party. Falsely accused of masterminding the Tiananmen rally, they are serving long prison terms. Han Dongfang, bold speechmaker at Tiananmen Square, organized communist China's first independent trade union. Tortured in prison, he was recently released and came to the U.S. for medical treatment. Black, foreign affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times , and Munro, China specialist for Human Rights Watch, provide an invaluable glimpse of the regime's methods of repression and of clandestine opposition groups still operating deep underground. (May)