Dr. Jiang Yanyong said in a letter dated Feb. 24 that ordinary Chinese will be "increasingly disappointed and angry" if the Communist Party does not revise its judgment on the incident, which says the student-led protests were a counterrevolutionary riot.
He called on officials to "reappraise" the demonstrations as a "patriotic movement."
Jiang, 72, is credited with breaking official secrecy to reveal the true scale of Beijing's severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak. That was followed by embarrassing official admissions and the firing of a Cabinet minister.
His letter was addressed to China's legislature, which is currently meeting for its annual two-week session. A copy was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
"My proposal is that the June 4 student movement of 1989 should be reappraised as a patriotic movement," Jiang wrote. "Errors committed by our party should be resolved by the party. The sooner this is done and the more thoroughly this is done, the better."
Wang Shusen, a legislative delegate from China's southern Guizhou province, said "history has already made its judgment of (the 1989 crackdown), so it cannot be reappraised." Wang's comment was in response to a reporter's request for a reaction to Jiang's letter.
Others who have issued similar appeals have been harassed by the government and in some cases detained.
It wasn't clear whether anything had happened to Jiang. Calls to Jiang's home phone number weren't answered Monday. The number for his hospital is unlisted.
