For the past couple of weeks, Chinese media has been abuzz with talk of a new book, "Conversations With Chen Xitong."  The book owes it popularity to the topic, which takes the reader back to the horrific days of theTiananmen Square protests of 1989 where in a matter of two months up to 7,000 young demonstrators were killed by the Chinese government.

People in China and the world over still have many unanswered questions including exactly how many lives perished  during that moment in history. There may be no better person to provide those answers than Chen Xitong who was the mayor of Beijing during the crackdown. Amongst other revelations, Xitong expresses regret for what took place and says that the tragedy could have been avoided.

It should come as no surprise given the history of Tinanmen Square and the Chinese government's record on censorship that the book has been banned in mainland China.  But it is now available in Hong Kong though the government did try to stop the 267 page book from being published there as well. It is now quickly becoming the top seller of many Hong Kong bookstores.

The former mayor told the book's author,Yao Jianfu, that he still considers himself a communist but was compelled to share his opinions because "the tragedy could have been prevented."