Word: yao
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...Yao Ming...
...much for the public account. Enter Yao Ming-Le, the mysterious author of this book's version of events. Drawing on an impressive familiarity with the intimate workings of China's armed forces and security services, Yao offers a tale of conspiracy and bungled planning: Lin never died in the plane crash in Mongolia. He and his wife were murdered on Mao's orders. The executions took place, in Yao's version, after a dinner of sea cucumbers and tiger's tendons at a secret military hideout reserved for China's top leaders outside...
...very engrossing, but is it true? The reader is unfortunately told nothing about the pseudonymous Yao except that he is "a citizen of the People's Republic of China." Much of his account, moreover, rests on purported access to the memoirs of an official, top-secret investigator of the real events, who is also conveniently dead. The photographs in the book, taken from the official, secret Chinese investigation, are certainly authentic, but copies of them are also probably in the hands of half a dozen of the world's intelligence organizations...
Moreover, Yao's tale raises even more questions than it answers. Could Lin, one of China's greatest generals, really have been as reckless and incompetent, just at the point of starting the coup, as he appears in this book? What plausibility is there in the statement that Lin Liguo planned to blow up Mao's train, traveling at 70 m.p.h., with ground-to-ground missiles guided from more than 90 miles away? Even less credible is Yao's theory that the Trident, with Lin Liguo aboard, was hit by missiles while still in Chinese airspace...
Even the most senior foreign correspondents in Peking were hard pressed to recall any incident to match it. Emerging from two days of discussions with British diplomats last week over the future status of Hong Kong, Chinese Negotiator Yao Guang was besieged so vigorously by reporters from Hong Kong that he was almost knocked to the ground. The startled Yao retreated to the safety of a staircase. "All I can say," he volunteered, "is that the talks are useful and constructive, and we will resume our talks on the 25th of July." With that, the flabbergasted Yao fought...