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Critics Remember China's Li Peng as 'Butcher of Beijing'

Joyce Huang

   BEIJING - Upon his death on Monday, Li Peng, China's former premier,
   was officially extolled as a time-tested statesman in China.

   But internationally, Li will undoubtedly be remembered as the "Butcher
   of Beijing" for his role in the bloody crackdown of the 1989 Tiananmen
   Square pro-democracy student movement, observers say.
   "He fed erroneous and highly exaggerated reports to [then Chinese
   President] Deng Xiaoping about the extent, to which, the students were
   trying to overthrow the party and he exaggerated the dangers posed by
   the supporters of the pro-democracy movement," said Willy Lam, a noted
   Chinese political analyst.
   "So, he played a role in influencing Deng Xiaoping to make the fatal
   decision to use troops to crush the pro-democracy movement," the Hong
   Kong-based analyst added.
   

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