By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 25, 1998; Page A25

BEIJING, June 24—Former Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang, ousted in 1989 on the eve of the bloody crackdown on democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, has written a letter asking current party leaders to admit that the move against the student-led protests was a grave mistake.

With President Clinton due to arrive in China Thursday night for a nine-day visit, the Reuters news agency obtained a copy of Zhao's letter, which said that the killing of hundreds of demonstrators on June 4, 1989, was "one of the biggest human rights problems this century."

Clinton is the first U.S. president to visit China since Communist leaders ordered troops to open fire on the Tiananmen demonstrators. The President has been criticized by members of Congress and U.S. human rights groups for agreeing to take part in an official welcoming ceremony next to the square.

"President Clinton's visit to China marks a turn for the better in Sino-U.S. relations," wrote Zhao, 78, who was general secretary of the Communist Party and now lives under loose house arrest in Beijing. "But the United States and the whole of the West have again and again raised the June 4 problem and the human rights problem of China," he added. "Rather than let it become an obstacle to international relations, it would be better to resolve the June 4 problem ourselves voluntarily."

White House aides have said that Clinton will speak publicly about human rights problems in China during his trip but that he will not attempt to meet with Chinese dissidents. Such meetings would anger his host, President Jiang Zemin, and possibly put the dissidents in danger of arrest, U.S. officials have said.

Zhao was toppled from power when other party leaders, including senior leader Deng Xiaoping, decided that he was too sympathetic toward the student protesters. Zhao opposed the imposition of martial law and went to Tiananmen Square to plead with student leaders to disperse the crowds to avoid disaster. Later, after tanks rolled into the square, Zhao defended the students and their demands in a secret statement to party leaders.

In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has modified its description of the 1989 demonstrations, changing its characterization from a "counterrevolutionary riot," to an "incident," to the current usage of a very mild version of the word "disturbance." But the party has steadfastly defended the decision to order troops to fire on demonstrators.

Zhao's letter is likely to irritate Jiang, who replaced him as Communist Party chief in 1989. Zhao made a similar plea to party leaders last September during an important party congress, and Jiang, in an interview last October, said sternly that Zhao "must accept party discipline."

Despite his age, Zhao is still considered a potential political force, capable of rallying reformers within the party. Following the September letter, there was a tightening of restrictions on Zhao, who has tried to play golf regularly in recent years.

Recently, the government has also tightened its watch on dissidents in an effort to avoid any disruption during Clinton's visit. Several Chinese who have visited Beijing from other cities have been picked up by police and sent home. Police also detained a dissident today in the southern city of Guilin, which Clinton is to visit on July 1. Eight policemen took Li Xiaolong, 34, a onetime member of the defunct dissident group Human Rights Voice, from his home and placed him in custody.