The diary believed to be written by former premier Li Peng contains an important revelation about the role of Deng Xiaoping in the party's decision to condemn the Tiananmen student movement - a turning point that made peaceful resolution impossible and shaped the bloody outcome.
In an entry dated April 23, 1989, Li left a clue that strongly suggests he and former president Yang Shangkun met Deng secretly the night before the landmark Politburo meeting he chaired on April 24.
After former party secretary Zhao Ziyang set off to North Korea for a state visit on the afternoon of April 23, Li wrote, he was very worried that the student movement might lead to another Cultural Revolution.
'I had no resolution about how to handle the chaos before us. At this time, comrade Shangkun suggested I take the initiative to seek instructions from comrade Xiaoping, and he would go with me.'
The diary does not mention when or where the meeting took place. It is the first suggestion of a secret meeting between Deng and Li on April 23. Past records - including a memoir by Zhao and The Tiananmen Papers, a book about the June 4 crackdown - said Li reported to Deng only on April 25, a day after a Politburo standing committee meeting decided to condemn the student movement.
Many party insiders and observers, including Zhao, believed Li's descriptions during an April 25 meeting with Deng provoked Deng's fear of the student movement and prompted the paramount leader to pass the verdict that swift actions should be taken to crush the 'anti-party, anti-socialist turmoil'.