Recent publication of The Tiananmen Papers (hereinafter, TP) by the Public Affairs Publishing House in New York, synchronized masterfully with the publication of excerpts of the 513-page book in the journal published by the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations,Foreign Affairs, Vol. 80, No. 1 (January/February 2001), pp. 2–50. and with generous coverage in the world press, was an event transcending its importance to the community of China scholarship. It seems fair to say, in view of the book's provenance, that this was not only a contribution to our understanding of recent history, but an instance of “using the past to serve the present”; those responsible for this publication are in the position to insist that the events associated with the crackdown of the night of 3–4 June 1989, though still unmentionable in public, are relevant to the generational succession being arranged in preparation for the 16th Party Congress in October 2002.