A brief history of Tiananmen Square 1989

This week (June 4) marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre- or Tiananmen "incident", depending on who you ask. The event is a major story in Western newspapers, but has passed unnoticed in China. The word "Tiananmen" in the West brings images of tanks, soldiers, and brutal repression. In China, the word has the opposite effect: it is a patriotic word. It is the site where the May Fourth protests were held and Mao Zedong declared the People's Republic of China. For Chinese in their teens and twenties, who were infants or not yet born during the event, the protests of 1989 mean nothing.

Background

The 80's in China were a time of exploration and experimentation with freedom. Mao died in 1976, which ended an era of terror, starvation, and radicalism. Deng Xiaoping became the dominant figure by 1977, and ushered in a new era of economic development and cooperation. Deng, in an effort to overthrow then-Premier Hua Guofeng, sponsored a "Democracy Wall" in central Beijing. It was a wall in which intellectuals and students could post their grievances against the government. It did the job- Hua was forced to step down in 1980. Shortly after, Deng crushed the nascent democratic movement so as to not share Hua's fate.

The Chinese people were not satisfied. Many continued to argue that the economic reform Deng promoted was not enough- political reform was needed as well. The most prominent pro-democracy advocate was Hu Yaobang, General Secretary of the Communist Party. He famously advocated for rehabilitation of people persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, greater autonomy for Tibet, and freedom of speech and press. When Hu died of a heart attack in April 1989, tens of thousands gathered in Tiananmen Square for his funeral.

The Protests

On April 17, three thousand students from Peking University marched to Tiananmen Square to commemorate Hu, and were soon joined by 1,000 from Tsinghua University. On April 21, over 100,000 were camping out in the square.

The students ultimately decided that hunger strikes were necessary, and over 1,000 participated. Premier Li Peng agreed to speak with student leaders, and it was aired live (Chinese press was more free then than now, and the media was allowed to cover the protests uncensored). These talks didn't help, though, and the hunger strike continued. Three weeks in, Li declared martial law and ordered all protesters to evacuate.

The rest is well known. On June 3, Li sent in armed forces and tanks to clear the square. No one knows how many died. The official Chinese number is 241 (including soldiers), while Western sources place the number anywhere between 300 and 7,000.

20 Years Later

This year's anniversary passed mostly without incident in mainland China, and the government made sure of that. Days beforehand, Twitter and other networking sites were blocked. The Square was officially closed off to journalists on June 4, and full of more uniformed and plain-clothes officers than usual. Perhaps most effectively, Chinese officials scheduled the "Gao Kao", China's grueling college entrance exam, a week after the anniversary- making sure no student in his right mind would stop studying to protest. Interestingly, though, a Chinese English-language newspaper broke the taboo of reporting on the incident. The article barely mentions the violence that occurred, but it's definitely a start. Another interesting story: China's No. 2 most wanted "criminal" involved in the protests, Wu'er Kaixi, tried to turn himself in last week so that he could see his parents after 20 years. He was denied entry and sent back to Taiwan, where he has lived in exile since 1989.

In Hong Kong, which enjoys much more freedom than the mainland, 150,000 gathered to commemorate the anniversary. President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan called on China to face its past, saying, “[The rule of law and human rights] are universal values that should become the common language of the people on both sides.”


Some interesting reads on the incident:

Zhao Ziyang's memoirs: Zhao Ziyang was the Premier of China from 1983-1987, and the General Secretary during the protests. He was strongly in favor of a soft approach to the protesters, and was later put under house arrest until his death for that stance. His journal just has been posthumously published in English. I haven't had a chance to read it since it was published three weeks ago, but you can read a review from the Economist here.

Beijing Coma by Ma Jian. Ma's books are banned from China because of their political messages and "racism". The book tells the story of the Tiananmen Square massacre from the point of view of Dai Wei, a participant in the events left in a coma. Overall, the book is entertaining, educational and an easy read. However, it is too long- it could easily have been 300 pages instead of 700. It is also obvious from the writing style and extreme anti-government bias that the book was intended for Western audiences.

The Tiananmen Papers compiled by Andrew Nathan and Perry Link. A Chinese government official by the pseudonym of Zhang Liang provided Nathan and Link with a huge amount of transcripts and classified documents, detailing exactly what went on that day. The documents, unsurprisingly, are considered "fabrications" by the Chinese government. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the massacre.

The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence. This book covers modern China from the Qing dynasty until Tiananmen. It's a must for any topic in modern Chinese history.