The
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, referred to in
most of the world as the Tiananmen Square massacre
and in the People's Republic of China
(PRC) as the June Fourth Incident
(officially to avoid confusion with two prior Tiananmen Square protests), were a
series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square
in Beijing in the PRC
beginning on 14 April. Led mainly by students and
intellectuals, the protests occurred in a year that saw the
collapse of a number of communist
governments around the world.
The protests were sparked by the death of a pro-
democracy and anti-
corruption official,
Hu
Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's
funeral, 1,000,000 people had gathered at Tiananmen square. The
protests lacked a unified cause or leadership; participants
included disillusioned
Communist Party of China members
and
Trotskyists as well as
free market reformers, who were generally
against the government's
authoritarianism and voiced calls for
economic change and democratic reform within the structure of the
government. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square, in
Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities
throughout China, including Shanghai, which remained peaceful
throughout the protests.
The movement lasted seven weeks, from Hu's death on 15 April until
tanks cleared Tiananmen Square on 4 June. In Beijing, the resulting
military response to the protesters by the PRC government left many
civilians and military personnel charged with clearing the square
dead or severely injured. The number of deaths is not known and
many different estimates exist.
Nicholas D. Kristof of the
New York Times estimated the death toll
at 400-800 based on information he gathered from multiple medical
sources.
Following the conflict, the government conducted widespread arrests
of protesters and their supporters, cracked down on other protests
around China, banned the foreign press from the country and
strictly controlled coverage of the events in the PRC press.
Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the
protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed
under
house arrest, such as
General
Secretary Zhao Ziyang. There was
widespread international condemnation of the PRC government's use
of force against the protesters.
Naming of incident
In the
Chinese language, the
incident is most commonly known as the
June Fourth
Movement, the
June Fourth Incident or
colloquially, simply
Six-four ( ; June 4). The
nomenclature of the former is consistent with the customary names
of the other two great protest actions that occurred in Tiananmen
Square: the
May Fourth Movement
of 1919, and the
April Fifth
Movement of 1932. June 4 refers to the day on which the
People's Liberation Army cleared Tiananmen Square of protesters,
although the order to proceed into Tiananmen as well as its actual
operation began on the evening of June 3. Other names which have
been used in the Chinese language include
June Fourth
Massacre or . The
government of the
People's Republic of China has referred to the event as the
Political Turmoil between Spring and Summer of
1989. Other names, such as the "89 People's Movement" ( )
are also used to describe the event broadly in its entirety. The
date "May 35th" is sometimes substituted for 4 June to avoid
restrictions that the government of China places on the Internet.
In English, the term "Tiananmen Square Massacre" is often used to
describe the June 4 events on most media sources. However, the use
of this name to describe this event in English-language media is
not consistent.
Background

Tiananmen Square as seen from the
Tiananmen Gate in 2004.
Since 1978,
Deng Xiaoping had led a
series of
economic and
political reforms which had led to the gradual
implementation of a
market economy and
some political liberalization that relaxed the system set up by
Mao Zedong.
Some students and
intellectuals
believed that the reforms had not gone far enough and that China
needed to reform
its political
system. They were also concerned about the social and
iron-fisted controls that the
Communist Party of China still had.
This group had also seen the political liberalization that had been
undertaken in the name of
glasnost
by
Mikhail Gorbachev, so they had
been hoping for comparable reform. Many workers who took part in
the protests also wanted democratic reform, but opposed the new
economic policies.
The Tiananmen Square protests were in large measure sparked by the
death of former Secretary General
Hu
Yaobang: Hu Yaobang's resignation from the position of
Secretary General of the CPC had been announced on 16 January 1987.
His forthright calls for "rapid reform" and his almost open
contempt of "Maoist excesses" had made him a suitable scapegoat in
the eyes of Deng Xiaoping and others, after the
pro-democracy
student protests of 1986–1987. Included in his resignation was
also a "humiliating self-criticism", which he was forced to issue
by the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Hu Yaobang's
sudden death, due to heart attack, on 15 April 1989 provided a
perfect opportunity for the students to gather once again, not only
to mourn the deceased Secretary General, but also to have their
voices heard in "demanding a reversal of the verdict against him"
and bringing renewed attention to the important issues of the
1986–1987 pro-democracy protests and possibly also to those of the
Democracy Wall protests in
1978–1979.
Protest development
Small
voluntary civilian gatherings started on 15 April around Monument to the
People's Heroes
in the middle of the Tiananmen Square
in the form of mourning for Hu
Yaobang.
On the same date of 15 April, many students at
Peking
University
and
Tsinghua
University
expressed their sorrow and mourning for Hu Yaobang
by posting eulogies inside the campus and erecting shrines, and
joined the civilian mourning in Tiananmen Square in a piecemeal
fashion.
Organized student gatherings started outside
of Beijing on a small scale in Xi'an
and Shanghai
on 16 April.
On the
afternoon of 17 April, in Beijing, 500 students from China University
of Political Science and Law marched to the eastern gate of the
Great Hall of
the People
, part of Tiananmen Square, and commenced mourning
activities for Hu Yaobang. The gathering in front of the
Great Hall of the People was soon deemed obstructive to the normal
operation of the building, so police intervened and attempted to
disperse the students by persuasion. The gathering featured
speakers from various backgrounds giving public speeches (mostly
anonymous) commemorating Hu Yaobang, expressing their concerns of
social problems.
Starting at midnight on the night of 17 April, three thousand
students from Peking University marched from the campus towards
Tiananmen Square, and soon nearly a thousand students from Tsinghua
University joined the ranks. Upon arrival, they soon joined forces
with students and civilians who were in the Square earlier. As its
size grew, the gathering gradually evolved into a protest, as
students began to draft a list of pleas and suggestions (List of
Seven Demands) that they wanted the government to listen to and
carry through.
The morning of 18 April, the students remained in the square.
Some
gathered around the Monument to the People's Heroes
singing patriotic songs and listening to impromptu
speeches by student organizers. Another group of students
sat in front of the Great Hall of the People, the office of the
Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress; they demanded to
see members of the Standing Committee and show them the List of
Seven Demands.
Meanwhile, a few thousand students gathered
in front of the Zhongnanhai
building complex, the residence of the government,
demanding to see government leaders and get answers to their
earlier demands. Students tried to muscle their way through
the gate by pushing, but security and police, locking arms, formed
a
cordon that eventually deterred students'
attempts to enter through the gate. Students then staged a
sit-in. Some government officials did unofficially
meet with student representatives, but without an official
response, frustrations continued to mount.
On 20 April, police finally dispersed the students in front of the
Zhongnanhai by force, to ensure proper function of the building
complex. The police employed batons and minor clashes were
reported. The protests in Tiananmen Square gained momentum after
news of the confrontation between students and police spread; the
belief by students that the
Chinese
media was distorting the nature of their activities also led to
increased support.
On the night of 21 April, the day before Hu's funeral, some 100,000
students marched on Tiananmen Square, gathering there before the
square could be closed off for the funeral.
From 21 April to 23 April, students from Beijing called for a
strike at universities, which included teachers and students
boycotting classes. The government, which was well aware of the
political storm caused by the now-legitimized 1976
Tiananmen Incident, was alarmed. On 26
April, following an internal speech made by Deng Xiaoping, the
CPC's official newspaper
People's
Daily issued a front-page
editorial titled
Uphold the flag to clearly
oppose any turmoil, attempting to rally the public behind the
government, and accused "extremely small segments of opportunists"
of plotting civil unrest. The statement enraged the students, and
on 27 April about 50,000 students assembled on the streets of
Beijing, disregarding the warning of a crackdown made by
authorities, and demanded that the government retract the
statement.
In Beijing, a majority of students from the city's numerous
colleges and
universities
participated with support of their instructors and other
intellectuals. The students rejected official
Communist Party-controlled student
associations and set up their own autonomous associations. The
students viewed themselves as Chinese patriots, as the heirs of the
May Fourth Movement for "science
and democracy" of 1919. The protests also evoked memories of the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1976
which had eventually led to the ousting of the
Gang of Four. From their origins as a
memorial to Hu Yaobang, who was seen by the students as an advocate
of democracy, the students' activities gradually developed over the
course of their demonstration from protests against
corruption into demands for
freedom of the press and an end to, or
the reform of, the rule of the PRC by the Communist Party of China
and
Deng Xiaoping, the
de
facto paramount Chinese leader. Partially successful attempts
were made to reach out and network with students in other cities
and with workers.
While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership,
participants were generally against
authoritarianism and voiced calls for
democratic reform within the structure of the government. Unlike
the Tiananmen protests of 1987, which consisted mainly of students
and intellectuals, the protests in 1989 commanded widespread
support from the urban workers who were alarmed by the new economic
reforms, growing
inflation, and
corruption. In Beijing, they were supported by a large number of
people.
Similar numbers were found in major cities
throughout China such as Urumqi
, Shanghai,
and Chongqing
; and later in Hong Kong, Taiwan
and Chinese
communities in North America and Europe.
Protests escalate
On 4 May, approximately 100,000 students and workers marched in
Beijing making demands for free media and a formal dialogue between
the authorities and student-elected representatives. A declaration
demanded the government to accelerate political reform.
The government rejected the proposed dialogue, only agreeing to
talk to members of appointed student organizations. On 13 May, two
days prior to the highly-publicized
state
visit by the reform-minded
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, huge groups of students
occupied Tiananmen Square and started a
hunger strike, insisting the government
withdraw the accusation made in the
People's Daily editorial and begin talks
with the designated student representatives. Hundreds of students
went on hunger strikes and were supported by hundreds of thousands
of protesting students and part of the population of Beijing, for
one week.
Protests and strikes began at colleges in other cities, with many
students traveling to Beijing to join the demonstration. Generally,
the demonstration at Tiananmen Square was well-ordered, with daily
marches of students from various Beijing area colleges displaying
their solidarity with the boycott of college classes and with the
developing demands of the protest. The students sang
The Internationale, the world
socialist anthem, on their way to and
within the square.
The students even showed a surprising gesture
of respect to the government by helping police arrest three men
from Hunan
Province
, including Yu Zhijian,
Yu Dongyue, and Lu
Decheng who had thrown ink on the large portrait of Mao that
hangs from Tiananmen, just north of the square. The three
young men were later sentenced to prison for, respectively, life,
20 years, and 16 years.
Hunger strikes
The students ultimately decided that in order to sustain their
movement and impede any loss of momentum, a hunger strike would
need to be enacted. The students' decision to undertake the hunger
strike was a defining moment in their movement. The hunger strike
began in May 1989 and grew to include
"more than one thousand
persons". The hunger strike brought widespread support for the
students and
"the ordinary people of Beijing rallied to protect
the hunger strikers...because the act of refusing sustenance and
courting government reprisals convinced onlookers that the students
were not just seeking personal gains but (were) sacrificing
themselves for the Chinese people as a whole".
The hunger strike not only gained significant support nationally
for the students, but also rang further alarms in China's top
leadership. The national press, then still relatively free to cover
ongoing events without propagating the party line, aired the talks
between Premier
Li Peng and student leaders
on the evening of 18 May. During the talks
Wu'er Kaixi,
Wang Dan,
and others openly accused the government for being too slow to
react and rebuked Li Peng personally for lacking the "sincerity to
conduct real discussions". The discussion did not yield much
results, but gained student leaders prominent airtime on China's
national television. Li Peng and other leaders, however, maintained
the government was only trying to "maintain order", but alluded to
the students actions as "patriotic".
As the hunger strike escalated, numerous political and civil
organizations around the country voiced their concern for the
students, many empathizing with their positions. The Chinese Red
Cross issued a special notice and sent in a large number of
personnel to provide medical services to the hunger strikers on the
Square. For the first time, on 19 May, two of the highest ranked
members of China's central leadership, Premier Li Peng and General
Secretary Zhao Ziyang went to Tiananmen personally in an attempt
neutralize the situation. At 4:50 am,
Zhao
Ziyang went to the Square and made a
speech urging
the students to end the hunger strike. Part of his speech was
to become a famous quote, when he said, referring to the older
generation of people in China,
"We are already old, it doesn't
matter to us any more." In contrast, the students were young
and he urged them to stay healthy and not to sacrifice themselves
so easily. Zhao's emotional speech was applauded by some students
on the Square; it would be his last public appearance.
Partially
successful attempts were made to negotiate with the PRC government,
who were located nearby in Zhongnanhai
, the Communist Party headquarters and leadership
compound. Because of the visit of Mikhail Gorbachev, foreign
media were present in China in large numbers. Their coverage of the
protests was extensive and generally favorable towards the
protesters, but pessimistic that they would attain their goals.
Toward the end of the demonstration, on 30 May, a statue of the
Goddess of Democracy was
erected in the Square and came to symbolize the protest to
television viewers worldwide.
The
Standing
Committee of the Politburo, along with the
party elders (retired but still-influential
former officials of the government and Party), were at first
hopeful that the demonstrations would be short-lived or that
cosmetic reforms and investigations would satisfy the protesters.
They wished to avoid
violence if possible,
and relied at first on their far-reaching Party apparatus in
attempts to persuade the students to abandon the protest and return
to their studies. One barrier to effective action was that the
leadership itself supported many of the demands of the students,
especially the concern with corruption. However, one large problem
was that the protests contained many people with varying agendas,
and hence it was unclear with whom the government could negotiate,
and what the exact demands of the protesters were. The confusion
and indecision among the protesters was also mirrored by confusion
and indecision within the government. The official media mirrored
this indecision as headlines in the People's Daily alternated
between sympathy with the demonstrators and denouncing them.
Among the top leadership, General Secretary Zhao Ziyang was
strongly in favour of a soft approach to the demonstrations, while
Li Peng was seen to argue in favour of a
crackdown. Ultimately the decision to forcefully intervene on the
demonstrations was made by a group of Party elders, who saw
abandonment of
single-party rule
as a return of the chaos of the
Cultural Revolution. Although most of
these people had no official position, they were able to control
the military. Deng Xiaoping was chairman of the
Central
Military Commission and was able to declare
martial law;
Yang
Shangkun ( ) was
President of the
People's Republic of China, which, although a symbolic position
under the 1982
Constitution,
was legally the
commander-in-chief of the
armed forces. The Party elders believed that
lengthy demonstrations were a threat to the stability of the
country. The demonstrators were seen as tools of advocates of
"
bourgeois liberalism" who were
pulling the strings behind the scenes, as well as tools of elements
within the party who wished to further their personal
ambitions.
Nationwide and outside mainland China
At the beginning of the movement, the Chinese
news media had a rare opportunity to broadcast
the news without heavy government censorship. Most of the news
media were free to write and report however they wanted, due to
lack of control from the central and local governments. The news
was spread quickly across the land. According to Chinese news
media's report, students and workers in over 400 cities, including
cities in
Inner Mongolia, also
organized and started to protest. People also traveled to the
capital to join the protest in the Square.
University students in Shanghai also took to the streets to
commemorate the death of
Hu Yaobang and
protest against certain policies of the government. In many cases,
these were supported by the universities' Party committees.
Jiang Zemin, then-Municipal Party
Secretary, addressed the student protesters in a bandage and
'expressed his understanding', as he was a former student agitator
before 1949. But at the same time, he moved swiftly to send in
police forces to control the streets and to purge Communist Party
leaders who had supported the students.
On 19 April, the editors of the
World Economic Herald, a
magazine close to reformists, decided to publish, in their 24 April
#439 issue, a commemorative section on Hu. Inside was an article by
Yan Jiaqi, which commented favourably on
the Beijing student protests on 18 April and called for a
reassessment of Hu's purge in 1987. On 21 April, a party official
of Shanghai asked the editor in chief, Qin Benli, to change some
passages. Qin Benli refused, so the official turned to
Jiang Zemin, who demanded that the article be
censored. By that time, a first batch of copies of the paper had
already been delivered. The remaining copies were published with a
blank page. On 26 April, the "People's Daily" published its
editorial condemning the
student
protest. Jiang followed this cue and suspended Qin Benli.
In Hong
Kong, on 27 May 1989, over 300,000 people gathered at Happy Valley
Racecourse
for a gathering called "Democratic songs dedicated
for China." Many Hong Kong and Taiwanese celebrities sang
songs and expressed their support for the students in Beijing. The
following day, a procession of 1.5 million people, one fourth of
Hong Kong's population, led by
Martin
Lee,
Szeto Wah and other organization
leaders, paraded through
Hong Kong
Island. Across the world, especially where Chinese lived,
people gathered and protested. Many governments, such as those of
the USA, Japan, etc., also issued warnings advising their own
citizens not to go to the PRC.
Government crackdown and deaths
20 May - 1 June
Although the
government declared
martial law on 20 May, the military's entry into
Beijing was blocked by throngs of protesters, and the army was
eventually ordered to withdraw which it did on 24 May.
Meanwhile, the demonstrations continued. The hunger strike was
approaching the end of the third week, and the government resolved
to end the matter before deaths occurred. After deliberation among
Communist party leaders, the use of military force to resolve the
crisis was ordered, and a deep divide in the
politburo resulted. General Secretary
Zhao Ziyang was ousted from political leadership
as a result of his support for the demonstrators. The military also
lacked unity on the issue, and purportedly did not indicate
immediate support for a crackdown, leaving the central leadership
scrambling to search for individual divisions willing to comply
with their orders.
1 June - 5 June
Soldiers and tanks from the
27th and 38th Armies
of the
People's Liberation
Army were sent to take control of the city. The 27th Army was
led by a commander related to
Yang
Shangkun. In a press conference,
US President George H. W. Bush
announced sanctions on the People's Republic of China, following
calls to action from members of Congress such as
US Senator Jesse
Helms. The President suggested intelligence he had received
indicated some disunity in China's military ranks, and even the
possibility of clashes within the military during those days.
Intelligence reports also indicated that 27th and 28th units were
brought in from outside provinces because the local PLA were
considered to be sympathetic to the protest and to the people of
the city. Reporters described elements of the 27th as having been
most responsible for civilian deaths. After their attack on the
square, the 27th reportedly established defensive positions in
Beijing - not of the sort designed to counter a civilian uprising,
but as if to defend against attacks by other military units.
As word spread that hundreds of thousands of troops were
approaching from all four corners of the city, Beijingers flooded
the streets to block them, as they had done two weeks earlier.
People set up barricades at every major intersection. Protesters
burned public buses and used them as roadblocks to stop the
military's progress. At about 10:30 p.m., near the Muxidi apartment
buildings (home to high-level Party officials and their families),
protesters yelled at the soldiers and some threw rocks; someone set
a bus on fire as the army tried to break through their barricades.
Then the soldiers started firing live ammunition at the protesters.
Some people were hit in the apartment blocks.
The battle continued on the streets surrounding the Square, with
protesters repeatedly advancing toward the
People's Liberation Army (PLA) and
constructing barricades with vehicles, while the PLA attempted to
clear the streets using
tear gas,
rifles, and tanks. Many injured citizens were saved by
rickshaw drivers who ventured into the
no-man's-land between the soldiers and crowds and carried the
wounded off to hospitals. After the attack on the square,
live television coverage showed many people
wearing black armbands in protest of the government's action,
crowding various boulevards or congregating by burnt out and
smoking barricades. In a couple of cases, officers were pulled from
tanks, beaten and killed by protesters.
Meanwhile, the PLA systematically established checkpoints around
the city, chasing after protesters and blocking off the university
district.
Within the Square itself, there was a debate between those who
wished to withdraw peacefully, including
Han Dongfang, and those who wished to stand
within the square, such as
Chai
Ling.
At about 1:00 a.m., the army finally reached Tiananmen Square and
waited for orders from the government. The soldiers had been told
not to open fire, but they had also been told that they must clear
the square by 6:00 a.m. - with no exceptions or delays. They made a
final offer of amnesty if the few thousand remaining students would
leave. About 4:00 a.m., student leaders put the matter to a vote:
Leave the square, or stay and face the consequences.
These APCs (Armoured Personnel Carriers) rolled on up the roads,
firing ahead and off to the sides, perhaps killing or wounding
their own soldiers in the process. BBC reporter
Kate Adie spoke of "indiscriminate fire" within
the square. Eyewitness reporter Charlie Cole also saw Chinese
soldiers firing
Type 56 assault
rifles into the crowd near an APC which had just been torched
and its crew killed, killing and wounding many that night. Students
who sought refuge in buses were pulled out by groups of soldiers
and beaten with heavy sticks. Even students attempting to leave the
square were beset by soldiers and beaten. Leaders of the protest
inside the square, where some had attempted to erect flimsy
barricades ahead of the APCs, were said to have "implored" the
students not to use weapons (such as
Molotov cocktails) against the oncoming
soldiers. Meanwhile, many students apparently were shouting, "Why
are you killing us?" Around four or five the following morning, 4
June, Charlie Cole reports to have seen tanks smashing into the
square, crushing vehicles and people with their tank treads. By
5:40 a.m. 4 June, the Square had been cleared.
On the morning of 5 June protesters tried to enter the blocked
square but were shot at by the soldiers. The soldiers shot them in
the back when they were running away. These actions were repeated
several times.
The suppression of the protest was immortalized in Western media by
the famous video footage and photographs of a lone man in a white
shirt standing in front of a column of tanks which were attempting
to drive out of Tiananmen Square. Taken on 5 June as the column
approached an intersection on the
Avenue
of Eternal Peace, the footage depicted the unarmed man standing
in the center of the street, halting the tanks' progress. As the
tank driver attempted to go around him, the "
Tank Man" moved into the tank's path. He continued
to stand defiantly in front of the tanks for some time, then
climbed up onto the turret of the lead tank to speak to the
soldiers inside. He reportedly said, "Why are you here? You have
caused nothing but misery." But this is debatable, as no one was
close enough to hear him besides the soldier. After returning to
his position blocking the tanks, the man was pulled aside by a
group of people, the identity of which eyewitnesses are divided on.
Eyewitness Jan Wong is convinced the group were concerned citizens
helping him away, while reporter Charlie Cole believes that "Tank
Man" was probably executed after being taken from the tank by
secret police, since the Chinese government could never produce him
to hush the outcry from many countries.
Time Magazine dubbed him
The Unknown
Rebel and later named him one of the
100 most
influential people of the 20th century. British
tabloid the
Sunday
Express reported that the man was 19-year-old student
Wang Weilin; however, the veracity of
this claim is dubious. What happened to the 'Tank Man' following
the demonstration is not known for certain. In a speech to the
President's Club in 1999, Bruce Herschensohn — former deputy
special assistant to
President Richard Nixon — reported that he was
executed 14 days later. In
Red China
Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now,
Jan
Wong writes that the man is still alive and hiding in mainland
China. In
Forbidden City, Canadian children's author
William Bell, claims the
man was named Wang Ai-min and was killed on 9 June after being
taken into custody. The last official statement from the PRC
government about the "Tank Man" came from Jiang Zemin in a 1990
interview with Barbara Walters. When asked about the whereabouts of
the "Tank Man", Jiang responded that the young man was "I think
never killed".
After the crackdown in Beijing on 4 June, protests continued in
much of mainland China for several days. There were large protests
in Hong Kong, where people again wore black in protest.
There
were protests in Guangzhou
, and large-scale protests in Shanghai with a
general strike. There were also protests in other countries,
many adopting the use of black armbands as well. However, the
government soon regained control. A political purge followed in
which officials responsible for organizing or condoning the
protests were removed, and protest leaders jailed. According to
Amnesty International at least 300 people were killed in Chengdu on
5 June. Troops in Chengdu used concussion grenades, truncheons,
knives and electric cattle prods against civilians. Hospitals were
ordered to not accept students and on the second night the
ambulance service was stopped by police.
Number of deaths
The number of dead and wounded remains unclear because of the large
discrepancies between the different estimates. Some Beijinger and
journalists reported that troops burned the bodies of many citizens
to destroy the evidence of the killings.
Some of the early estimates were based on reports of a figure of
2,600 from the Chinese Red Cross. The Chinese Red Cross has denied
ever providing such a figure. According to a PBS Frontline report,
this figure was quickly retracted under intense pressure from the
government. The official Chinese government figure is 241 dead,
including soldiers, and 7,000 wounded.
According to an analysis by
Nicholas
D. Kristof of
The New York Times, "The true number
of deaths will probably never be known, and it is possible that
thousands of people were killed without leaving evidence behind.
But based on the evidence that is now available, it seems plausible
that about fifty soldiers and policemen were killed, along with 400
to 800 civilians."
The Chinese government has maintained that there were no deaths
within the square itself, although videos taken there at the time
recorded the sound of gunshots.
Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China and State Council
claimed that the basic statistics were: "Five thousand PLA soldiers
and officers wounded, and more than two thousand local people
(counting students, city people, and rioters together) also
wounded." They also said no one died on Tiananmen Square itself.
Yuan Mu, the spokesman of the State Council,
said that a total of 23 people died, most of them students, along
with a number of people he described as "ruffians". According to
Chen Xitong, Beijing mayor, 200
civilians and several dozen soldiers died. Other sources stated
that 3,000 civilians and 6,000 soldiers were injured. In May 2007,
CPPCC member from Hong Kong, Chang Ka-mun said
300 to 600 people were killed in Tiananmen Square. He echoed that
"there were armed thugs who weren't students."
According to Jay Mathews who was
The Washington Post's
first Beijing bureau chief, "A few people may have been killed by
random shooting on streets near the square, but all verified
eyewitness accounts say that the students who remained in the
square when troops arrived were allowed to leave peacefully.
Hundreds of people, most of them workers and passersby, did die
that night, but in a different place and under different
circumstances."
US
ambassador James Lilley's account of
the massacre notes that US State Department
diplomats witnessed Chinese troops opening fire on
unarmed people and based on visits to hospitals around Beijing a
minimum of hundreds had been killed.
A strict focus on the number of deaths within Tiananmen Square
itself does not give an accurate picture of the carnage and overall
death count, since Chinese civilians were fired on in the streets
surrounding Tiananmen Square. In addition, students are reported to
have been fired on after they left the Square, especially in the
area near the Beijing concert hall.
Estimates of deaths from different sources, in descending order:
- 10,000 dead (including civilians and soldiers) - Soviet
Union.
- 7,000
deaths - NATO
intelligence.
- 4,000 to 6,000 civilians killed, but no one really knows -
Edward Timperlake.
- Over 3700 killed, excluding disappearance or secret deaths and
those denied medical treatment - PLA defector citing a document
circulating among officers.
- 2600 had officially died by the morning of 4 June (later
denied) - the Chinese Red Cross. An unnamed Chinese Red Cross
official estimated that, in total, 5,000 people
were killed and 30,000 injured.
- Closer to 1,000 deaths, according to Amnesty International and some of the
protest participants, as reported in a Time article. Other statements by
Amnesty International have
characterized the number of deaths as hundreds.
- 300 to 1,000 according to a Western diplomat that compiled
estimates.
- 400 to 800 plausible according to the New York Times' Nicholas D. Kristof. He developed this estimate
using information from hospital staff and doctors, and from "a
medical official with links to most hospitals".
- 180-500 casualties, according to a declassified NSA document
which referred to early casualty estimates.
- 241 dead, including soldiers, and 7,000 wounded, according to
the Chinese government.
- 186 named individuals confirmed dead at the end of June 2006 -
Professor Ding Zilin of the Tiananmen Mothers. The Tiananmen Mothers'
list includes some people whose deaths were not directly at the
hands of the army, such as a person who committed suicide after the
4 June incident.
International reaction
The events at Tiananmen were the first of their type shown in
detail on
Western television.
International reaction denounced the Chinese government's response,
particularly by Western governments and media. Criticism came from
both
Western and
Eastern Europe, North America, Australia and
some
east Asian and
Latin American countries.
Notably, many Asian
countries remained silent throughout the protests; the government
of India
responded to
the massacre by ordering the state television to pare down the
coverage to the barest minimum, so as not to jeopardize a thawing
in relations with China. North Korea
, Cuba
, Czechoslovakia
, East
Germany
and Pakistan
, among others, supported the Chinese government and
denounced the protests. Overseas Chinese students
demonstrated in many cities in Europe, America, the Middle East and
Asia.
Organizations
: Secretary-General
Javier Perez de Cuellar was
concerned at the incident, adding that the government should uphold
the utmost restraint, but also noted that the
UN Charter prohibits interference in member
states' internal affairs (especially member states with a
Security Council veto).
The European Economic Community condemned the government response and cancelled all high level contacts and loans. They planned a resolution at the UNHCR criticising China's human rights record. The EU maintains an arms embargo against China to this day.
Countries
: The Prime Minister,
Bob
Hawke, wept at a memorial service in the Great Hall in
Parliament. The
Australian
government granted Chinese students a four year
amnesty to stay in Australia.
: The
junta supported
the actions of the Chinese government, while opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi condemned them,
saying: "We deplore it. It
happened in
Burma and we wanted the world to stand by Burma, so we stand by
the Chinese students."
: The External Affairs Minister
Joe Clark described the incident as "inexcusable"
and issued a statement: "We can only express horror and outrage at
the senseless violence and tragic loss of life resulting from the
indiscriminate and brutal use of force against students and
civilians of Peking."
: The
government of Czechoslovakia
supported the Chinese governments response, expressing the idea
that China would overcome its problems and further develop
socialism. In response, the Chinese side "highly valued the
understanding shown by the
Czechoslovak Communist Party
and people" for suppressing the "anti-socialist" riots in
Beijing.
: The French Foreign Minister,
Roland Dumas, said he was "dismayed by the
bloody repression" of "an unarmed crowd of demonstrators."
: The leadership of the
German
Democratic Republic
approved of the crackdown. The
Volkskammer passed a resolution, in which East
Germany declared its support for suppressing the
"counterrevolutionary riots". East German politicians
Hans Modrow,
Günter Schabowski and
Egon Krenz visited China so as to document their
support.
: The West German Foreign Ministry urged China "to
return to its universally welcomed policies of reform and
openness."
: The Holy See of Vatican City
has no official diplomatic relations with China,
but Pope John Paul II expressed hope
that the events in China would bring change.
: The crackdown severely affected
perceptions of the mainland, with some calling for independence.
200,000 people protested against the Chinese government's response,
with the latter considering the protests as "subversive". The
people of Hong Kong hoped that the chaos on the mainland would
destabilize the Beijing Government and thus avert its reunification
with the rest of mainland China. The
Sino-British Joint
Declaration was also called into question.
Demonstrations
continued for several days, and wreaths were placed outside the
Xinhua News
Agency
office in the city.
: The
Hungarian government, which was
undergoing political reform, reacted strongly to the incident. The
Foreign Minister described the events as a "horrible tragedy", and
the government expressed "shock", adding that "fundamental human
rights could not be exclusively confined to the internal affairs of
any country." Demonstrations were held outside the Chinese embassy.
Hungary was the only country in Europe to have substantially
reduced relations with China in the aftermath of the events.
: The
Italian
Communist Party leader
Achille
Occhetto condemned the "unspeakable slaughter in progress in
China".
: The
Japanese
government called the response "intolerable" and froze loans to
China. Japan was also the first member of the
G7
to restore high level relations with China in the following
months.
: Kuwait voiced understanding of the measures
taken by the Chinese authorities to protect social stability.
: 150,000 protested in Macau.
: The
Dutch government froze
diplomatic relations with China, and summoned the Chinese Chargé
d'Affaires Li Qin Ping expressing shock at the "violent and brutal
actions of the People's Liberation Army."
: President Corazon Aquino expressed sadness at the
incident, urging the Chinese government to "urgently and
immediately take steps to stop the aggressive and senseless killing
by its armed forces". Socialist labor organization
KMU at first initially supported the action taken by
Chinese authorities, though later issued a "rectified position"
which blamed "insufficient information and improper decision making
process".
: The
Polish
government criticised the response of the Chinese government
but not the government itself. A government spokesman called the
incident "tragic", with "sincere sympathy for the families of those
killed and injured."
Daily protests and hunger strikes took place
outside the Chinese embassy in Warsaw
, often
encouraged by exaggerated reporting in newspapers. The
government also expressed hope that it did not affect Sino-Polish
relations.
(Taiwan): President
Lee
Teng-hui issued a statement on 4 June strongly condemning the
mainland Chinese response: "Early this morning, Chinese communist
troops finally used military force to attack the students and
others demonstrating peacefully for democracy and freedom in
Tiananmen Square in Peking, resulting in heavy casualties and loss
of life. Although we anticipated this mad action of the Chinese
communists beforehand, it still has moved us to incomparable grief,
indignation and shock." The authorities also lifted a ban on
telephone communications to encourage private contacts and counter
the
news blackout on the
mainland.
: The
government offered no comment on the
incident, but criticized Western calls for
economic sanctions against China,
dismissing them as interfering in China’s internal affairs.
: Gorbachev did not explicitly condemn the
actions, but called for reform. There was an interest on building
relations on a recent summit in Beijing, but the events fueled
discussion on human rights and Soviet foreign policy. There was
some private criticism of the Chinese response. Newly formed
opposition groups condemned the crackdown. 10 days after the
incident the government expressed regret, calling for political
dialogue. Public demonstrations occurred at the Chinese embassy in
Moscow. A spokesman on 10 June said the Kremlin was "extremely
dismayed" at the incident.
: The Foreign Ministry expressed "grave concern"
and hoped for no further deterioration of the situation. The
statement also encouraged dialogue to resolve the issue
peacefully.
: The
Swedish
government froze diplomatic relations with China.
: The
Thai
government had the warmest relations with Beijing out of all
ASEAN members, and expressed confidence that
the "fluid situation" in China had passed its "critical point",
though it was concerned that it could delay a settlement in the
Cambodian–Vietnamese
War.
: The Prime Minister,
Margaret Thatcher, expressed "utter
revulsion and outrage", and was "appalled by the indiscriminate
shooting of unarmed people." She promised to relax immigration laws
for Hong Kong residents.
: The
United
States Congress and
media responded
indignantly to the unfolding situation. President
George H. W. Bush
suspended military sales and visits. Large scale protests took
place around the country.
: Vietnam and China had a history of strained
relations, but the
Vietnamese
government quietly supported the Chinese government's position.
Media reported on the protests but offered no commentary, and state
radio added that the PLA could not have stopped the action after
"hooligans and ruffians insulted or beat up soldiers" and destroyed
military vehicles. The government expressed that it wanted better
relations with China, but did not want to go to the "extremes of
Eastern Europe or Tiananmen" -
referring to its own stability.
: The national news agency
Tanjug in the
non-aligned country said the
protest became a "symbol of destroyed illusions and also a symbol
of sacrificed ideals which have been cut off by machine gun volleys
and squashed under the caterpillars of heavy vehicles."
Aftermath
Arrests and purges
Chinese authorities summarily tried and executed many of the
workers they arrested in Beijing. In contrast, the students - many
of whom came from relatively affluent backgrounds and were
well-connected - received much lighter sentences.
Wang Dan, the student leader who topped
the most wanted list, spent seven years in prison. Many of the
students and university staff implicated were permanently
politically stigmatized, some never to be employed again.
Smaller protest actions continued in other cities for a few days.
Some university staff and students who had witnessed the killings
in Beijing organised or spurred commemorative events upon their
return to school. At Shanghai's prestigious
Jiaotong University, for example, the
party secretary organised a public commemoration event, with
engineering students producing a large metal wreath. However, these
commemorations were quickly put down, with those responsible being
purged.
During and after the demonstration, the authorities attempted to
arrest and prosecute the student leaders of the
Chinese democracy movement,
notably Wang Dan, Chai Ling,
Zhao
Changqing and
Wuer Kaixi. Wang Dan
was arrested, convicted and sent to prison, then allowed to
emigrate to the United States on the grounds of
medical parole. As a lesser figure in the
demonstrations, Zhao was released after six months in prison.
However, he was once again incarcerated for continuing to petition
for political reform in China.
Wuer Kaixi escaped to Taiwan
. He
is married and holds a job as a political commentator on Taiwanese
national radio. Chai Ling escaped to France, and then to the United
States.
In a recent public speech given at the
University
of Michigan
, Wang Dan commented on the current status of former
student leaders: Chai Ling started a hi-tech company in the US and
was permitted to return to China and do business, while Li Lu became an investment banker in Wall Street
and started a company. Wang Dan said his
plan was to find an academic job in the US after receiving his
PhD from Harvard University
, although he was eager to return to China if
permitted.
The Party leadership expelled
Zhao
Ziyang from the
Politburo
Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (PSC),
because he opposed martial law, and Zhao remained under house
arrest until his death.
Hu Qili, the other
member of the
PSC
who opposed the martial law but abstained from voting, was also
removed from the committee. He was, however, able to retain his
party membership, and after "changing his opinion", was reassigned
as deputy minister of Machine-Building and Electronics Industry.
Another
reform-minded Chinese leader, Wan Li, was
also put under house arrest immediately after he stepped out of an
airplane at Beijing Capital International
Airport
upon returning from his shortened trip abroad, with
the official excuse of "health reasons." When Wan Li was
released from his house arrest after he finally "changed his
opinion" he, like
Qiao Shi, was transferred
to a different position with equal rank but mostly ceremonial role.
Several Chinese ambassadors abroad claimed political asylum.
The event elevated
Jiang Zemin - then
Mayor of Shanghai - to become the General Secretary of the
Communist Party of China. Jiang's decisive actions in Shanghai, in
closing down reform-leaning publications and preventing deadly
violence, won him support from party elders in Beijing. Members of
the government prepared a
white paper
explaining the government's viewpoint on the protests. An anonymous
source within the PRC government smuggled the document out of
China, and Public Affairs published it in January 2001 as the
Tiananmen Papers. The
papers include a quote by Communist Party elder
Wang Zhen which alludes to the government's
response to the demonstrations.
State media mostly gave reports sympathetic to the students in the
immediate aftermath. As a result, those responsible were all later
removed. Two news anchors who reported this event on 4 June in the
daily 1900 hours (7:00 pm) news report on
China Central Television were fired
because they showed their sad emotions. Wu Xiaoyong, the son of a
Communist Party of China Central Committee member, and former PRC
foreign minister and vice premier
Wu
Xueqian were removed from the English Program Department of
Chinese Radio
International. Editors and other staff at the
People's
Daily (the newspaper of the Communist Party of China),
including its director
Qian Liren and
Editor-in-Chief Tan Wenrui, were also removed from their posts
because of reports in the paper which were sympathetic towards the
students. Several editors were arrested, with Wu Xuecan, who
organised the publication of an unauthorised Extra edition,
sentenced to four years' imprisonment.
Rob Gifford, a
National Public Radio journalist, said
that much of the political freedoms and debate that occurred
post-Mao and pre-Tiananmen ended after Tiananmen. For instance,
some of the authors of the film
River
Elegy (
He Shang) were arrested, and some of the
authors fled Mainland China. Gifford concluded that "China the
concept, China the empire, China the construct of two thousand
years of imperial thinking" has forbidden and may always forbid
"independent thinking" as that would lead to the questioning of
China's political system. Gifford added that people born after 1970
had "near-complete depoliticization" while older intellectuals no
longer focus on political change and instead focus on economic
reform.
Media coverage
The Tiananmen Square protests damaged the reputation of the PRC in
the
West. Western media had been
invited to cover the visit of
Mikhail
Gorbachev in May, and were thus in an excellent position to
cover some of the government crackdown live through networks such
as the
BBC and
CNN.
Protestors seized this opportunity, creating signs and banners
designed for international television audiences. Coverage was
further facilitated by the sharp conflicts within the Chinese
government about how to handle the protests. Thus, broadcasting was
not immediately stopped.
All international networks were eventually ordered to terminate
broadcasts from the city during the crackdown, with the government
shutting down the satellite transmissions. Broadcasters attempted
to defy these orders by reporting via telephone. Footage was
quickly smuggled out of the country, including the image of
"
the unknown rebel." The only network which
was able to record some images during the night was
TVE.
CBS correspondent Richard Roth and his cameraman
were imprisoned during the crackdown. Roth was taken into custody
while in the midst of filing a report from the Square via mobile
phone. In a frantic voice, he could be heard repeatedly yelling
what sounded like "Oh, no! Oh, no!" before the phone was
disconnected. He was later released, suffering a slight injury to
his face in a scuffle with Chinese authorities attempting to
confiscate his phone. Roth later explained he had actually been
saying, "Let go!"
Images of the protests would strongly shape Western views and
policy toward the PRC throughout the 1990s and into the 21st
century. There was considerable sympathy for the student protests
among Chinese students in the West.
Almost immediately, both the United
States and the European
Economic Community announced an arms
embargo, and China's image as a reforming country and a
valuable ally against the Soviet Union
was replaced by that of a repressive authoritarian regime. The Tiananmen
protests were frequently invoked to argue against
trade liberalization with mainland China and by
the United States'
Blue
Team as evidence that the PRC government was an aggressive
threat to world peace and US interests.
Meanwhile,
state media was ordered to
focus on dead soldiers, screening images often on television. Among
overseas Chinese students, the
Tiananmen Square protests triggered the formation of Internet news
services such as the China News Digest and the
NGO China Support
Network. In the aftermath of Tiananmen, organizations such as
the China Alliance for Democracy and the
Independent
Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars were formed,
although these organizations would have limited political impact
beyond the mid-1990s.
Impact on domestic political trends
The Tiananmen square protests dampened the growing concept of
political liberalization in communist countries that was popular in
the late 1980s; as a result, many democratic reforms that were
proposed during the 1980s were swept under the carpet. Although
there has been an increase in personal freedom since then,
discussions on structural changes to the PRC government and the
role of the Communist Party of China remain largely
taboo.
Despite early expectations in the West that PRC government would
soon collapse and be replaced by the
Chinese democracy movement, by
the early 21st century the Communist Party of China remained in
firm control of the People's Republic of China, and the student
movement which started at Tiananmen was in complete disarray.
In Hong Kong, the Tiananmen square protests led to fears that the
PRC would not honour its commitments under
one country, two systems in the
impending handover in 1997.
One consequence of this was that the new
governor Chris Patten attempted to
expand the franchise for the Legislative
Council of Hong Kong
which led to friction with the PRC. There
have been large candlelight vigils attended by tens of thousands in
Hong Kong every year since 1989 and these vigils have continued
following the transfer of power to the PRC in 1997.
The protests also marked a shift in the
political conventions which governed
politics in the People's Republic. Prior to the protests, under the
1982
Constitution,
the President was a largely symbolic role. By convention, power was
distributed between the positions of President, Premier, and
General
Secretary of the Communist Party of China, all of whom were
intended to be different people, in order to prevent the excesses
of
Mao-style dictatorship. However, after
Yang Shangkun used his reserve powers
as head of state to mobilize the military, the Presidency again
became a position imbued with real power. Subsequently, the
President became the same person as the General Secretary of the
CPC, and wielded paramount power.
In 1989, neither the Chinese military nor the Beijing police had
adequate anti-riot gear, such as rubber bullets and tear gas
commonly used in Western nations to break up riots. After the
Tiananmen Square protests, riot police in Chinese cities were
equipped with non-lethal equipment for riot control.
Economic impact
There was a significant impact on the Chinese economy after the
incident. Foreign loans to China were suspended by the
World Bank,
Asian Development Bank, and
governments; tourism revenue decreased from US$2.2 billion to
US$1.8 billion; foreign direct investment commitments were
cancelled and there was a rise in defense spending from 8.6% in
1986, to 15.5% in 1990, reversing a previous 10 year decline. The
Chinese Premier Li Peng visited the
United Nations Security
Council on 31 January 1992, and argued that the economic and
arms embargoes on China were a violation of national
sovereignty.
In the immediate aftermath of the protests, some within the Chinese
government attempted to curtail
free
market reforms that had been undertaken as part of
Chinese economic reform and
reinstitute administrative economic controls. However, these
efforts met with stiff resistance from provincial governors and
broke down completely in the early 1990s as a result of the
collapse of the Soviet Union and
Deng
Xiaoping's trip to the south. The continuance of economic
reform led to
economic growth in the
1990s, which allowed the government to regain much of the support
that it had lost in 1989. In addition, none of the current PRC
leadership played any active role in the decision to move against
the demonstrators, and one major leadership figure
Premier Wen Jiabao was Director of the Central Party
Office and accompanied
Zhao Ziyang to
meet the demonstrators.
The protest leaders at Tiananmen were unable to produce a coherent
movement or ideology that would last past the mid-1990s. Many of
the student leaders came from relatively "well-off" sectors of
society and were seen as out of touch with common people. A number
of them were
socialists. Many of the
organizations which were started in the aftermath of Tiananmen soon
fell apart due to personal infighting. Several overseas democracy
activists were supportive of limiting trade with mainland China,
which significantly decreased their popularity both within China
and among the overseas Chinese community. A number of
NGOs based in the US, which aim to bring
democratic reform to China and relentlessly
protest
human rights violations that
occur in China, remain. One of the oldest and most prominent of
them, the
China Support
Network (CSN), was founded in 1989 by a group of concerned US
and Chinese activists in response to Tiananmen Square.
Continuing issues
Forbidden topic in mainland China
Unlike the
Cultural Revolution,
about which people can still easily find information through
government-approved books, magazines, websites, et cetera, this
topic is forbidden by the government and accordingly generally
cannot be found in mainland Chinese media or websites.
The official media in mainland China views the crackdown as a
necessary reaction to ensure stability. As the incident is not part
of any education curriculum in China, usually Chinese youth born
after the crackdown learn of the protests from hearsay, family and
foreign media.
Every year there is a large rally in
Victoria
Park
, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, where people remember the
victims and demand that the CPC's official view be changed.
In 2008, this vigil was reported for the first time in the
mainstream Chinese press, but was attributed to be in support of
the victims of the recent earthquake in south-east China, and no
mention of Tiananmen Square was made.
Petition letters over the incident have emerged from time to time,
notably from Dr.
Jiang Yanyong and
Tiananmen Mothers, an organization
founded by a mother of one of the victims killed in 1989 where the
families seek vindication, compensation for their lost sons, and
the right to receive donations, particularly from abroad. Tiananmen
Square is tightly patrolled on the anniversary of 4 June to prevent
any commemoration on the Square.
After the PRC Central Government reshuffle in 2004, several cabinet
members mentioned Tiananmen. In October 2004, during President
Hu Jintao's visit to France, he reiterated
that "the government took determined action to calm the political
storm of 1989, and enabled China to enjoy a stable development." He
insisted that the government's view on the incident would not
change.
In March
2004, Premier Wen Jiabao said in a press conference that during the
1990s there was a severe political storm in the PRC, amid the
breakdown of the Soviet
Union
and radical
changes in Eastern Europe. He stated that the Communist
Central Committee successfully stabilized the open-door policy and
protected the "Career of Socialism with Chinese
Characteristics."
For the 20th anniversary of the event in 2009, there was a growing
will by Chinese people to talk openly about the event, and to start
an inquiry. The Chinese government blocked the use of social
networking sites such as
Twitter and
Flickr, and the e-mail provider
Hotmail in the days leading up to the anniversary.
It was also reported that Chinese airport vendors selling
The Economist magazine containing an article
with discourse on the June 4 anniversary had the pages with the
censored article systematically removed. Zhang Shijun, an
ex-soldier who was 18 in 1989, was arrested after publishing an
open letter to
Hu Jintao, to encourage
open talk on the issue.
Hong Kong and Macau
Special
Administrative Region governments have refused entry by students
involved in the protests to return to mainland China.
On June
5, 2009, several Chinese staff at the television station in
Guangzhou
were suspended after they allowed around 10 seconds
of the Tank Man footage and candlelight protests in Hong Kong to be
broadcast on the mainland.
History deleted inside mainland China
Following the protests, officials banned controversial films and
books, and shut down a large number of newspapers. Within one year,
12 percent of all newspapers, 8 percent of publishing companies, 13
percent of social science periodicals and more than 150 films were
banned or shut down. In addition to this, the government also
announced it had seized 32 million contraband books and 2.4 million
video and audio cassettes.
Currently, due to strong
Chinese government
censorship including
Internet
censorship, the
news media are forbidden to report anything related to the
protests. Websites related to the protest are blocked on the
mainland. A search for Tiananmen Square protest information on the
Internet in
Mainland China largely returns no results,
apart from the government-mandated version of the events and the
official view, which are mostly found on Websites of
People's
Daily and other heavily-controlled media.
In January 2006,
Google agreed to
censor their mainland China site, Google.cn, to remove
information about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, topics such
as
Tibetan independence,
Falun Gong and the
political status of Taiwan. When
people search for those censored topics, it will list the following
at the bottom of the page in Chinese, "According to local laws and
regulations and policies, some search results are not displayed."
The uncensored Wikipedia articles on the 1989 protests, both in
English and
Chinese Wikipedia,
have been attributed as a cause of the
blocking of
Wikipedia by the government in mainland China. The ban of
Wikipedia in mainland China was lifted, but the link to this
incident in Chinese Wikipedia remained dead.
In 2006,
the American PBS program "Frontline" broadcast a
segment filmed at Peking University
, many of whose students participated in the 1989
protests. Four present-day students were shown a picture of
the Tank Man, but none of them could identify what was happening in
the photo. Some responded that it was a military parade, or an
artwork.
On 15 May 2007, the leader of the pro-Beijing
Democratic
Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong,
Ma
Lik, provoked much criticism when he said that
"there was not a massacre" during the protests, as
there was "no intentional and indiscriminate shooting." He said
Hong Kong was "not mature enough" due to believing foreigners' rash
claims that a massacre took place. He said that Hong Kong showed
through its lack of patriotism and national identity that it would
thus "not be ready for democracy until 2022." His remarks were met
with wide condemnation from the public. He later acknowledged he
might have been "rash and frivolous" with his comments but insisted
that it was not a massacre.
On 4 June 2007, the anniversary of the massacre, a notice reading,
"Paying tribute to the strongwilled mothers of 4 June victims" was
published in the
Chengdu Evening News newspaper. The
matter was investigated by the Chinese government, and three
editors were fired from the paper. The clerk who approved the ad
had reportedly never heard of the 4 June crackdown and had been
told that the date was a reference to a mining disaster.
In late April 2009, Internet access to English-language media on
the events at Tiananmen, including video, news reports and
Wikipedia, was uncensored in mainland China for the first time.
Articles were still mostly censored on the Chinese version of
Google, though some videos were viewable. Additionally, filming in
Tiananmen Square on the 20th anniversary of the 1989 protests has
been discouraged by plain clothes police officers wielding
umbrellas and stepping in front of the cameras of journalists near
the square.
EU-US arms embargo
The
European Union and United States
embargo on
weapons sales to the PRC, put in
place as a result of the violent suppression of the Tiananmen
Square pro-democracy protests, still remains in place. The PRC has
been calling for a lifting of the ban for many years and has had a
varying amount of support from members of the
Council of the European Union.
In early 2004, France spearheaded a movement within the EU to lift
the ban. Former
German Chancellor
Gerhard Schröder publicly
added his voice to that of former
French President Jacques Chirac to have the embargo
lifted.
The arms embargo was discussed at a PRC-EU summit in the
Netherlands between 7 December and 9, 2004. In the run-up to the
summit, the PRC had attempted to increase pressure on the EU
Council to lift the ban by warning that the ban could hurt PRC-EU
relations. PRC Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui had called the ban
"outdated", and he told reporters, "If the ban is maintained,
bilateral relations will definitely be affected." In the end, the
EU Council did not lift the ban. EU spokeswoman Françoise le Bail
said there were still concerns about the PRC's commitment to human
rights. But at the time, the EU did state a commitment to work
towards lifting the ban.
The PRC continued to press for the embargo to be lifted, and some
member states began to drop their opposition. Jacques Chirac
pledged to have the ban lifted by mid-2005. However, the
Anti-Secession
Law of the People's Republic of China passing in March 2005
increased cross-strait tensions, damaging attempts to lift the ban,
and several EU Council members changed their minds. Members of the
U.S. Congress had also proposed
restrictions on the transfer of military technology to the EU if
they lifted the ban. Thus the EU Council failed to reach a
consensus, and although France and Germany pushed to have the
embargo lifted, the embargo was maintained.
Britain took charge of the EU Presidency in July 2005, making the
lifting of the embargo all but impossible for the duration of that
period. Britain had always had some reservations on lifting the ban
and wished to put it to the side, rather than sour EU-US relations
further. Other issues such as the failure of the
European
Constitution and the ensuing disagreement over the European
Budget and
Common
Agricultural Policy superseded the matter of the embargo in
importance. Britain wanted to use its presidency to push for
wholesale reform of the EU, so the lifting of the ban became even
more unlikely. The election of
José Manuel Barroso as
European Commission
President also made a lifting of the ban more difficult. At a
meeting with Chinese leaders in mid-July 2005, he said that China's
poor record on human rights would slow any changes to the EU's ban
on arms sales to China.
Political will also changed in countries that had previously been
more in favor of lifting the embargo. Schröder lost the
2005 German federal election
to
Angela Merkel, who became
chancellor on 22 November 2005 - Merkel made her position clear
that she was strongly against lifting the ban. Jacques Chirac
declared he would not stand again as a candidate for the French
Presidency in 2007. His successor,
Nicolas Sarkozy, is also in favour of
lifting the embargo like Chirac. That is, the French government has
changed, but not the French foreign policy on this
matter.
In
addition, the European
Parliament
has consistently opposed the lifting of the arms
embargo to the PRC. Though its agreement is not necessary
for lifting the ban, many argue it reflects the will of the
European people better as it is the only directly elected European
body—the EU Council is appointed by member states. The European
Parliament has repeatedly opposed any lifting of the arms embargo
on the PRC:
- The resolution of 28 April 2005, on the Annual Report on Human
Rights in the World 2004 and the EU's policy on the matter,
- The
resolution of 23 October 2003, on the annual report from the
Council to the European Parliament on the main aspects and basic
choices of CFSP, it insisted on a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan
issue through dialogue across the Taiwan Straits
and called on China to withdraw missiles in the
coastal provinces adjacent to the Taiwan Straits, and
- The resolution on relations between the EU, China and Taiwan
and security in the Far East of 7 July 2005. The EP has noted
several times that the current human rights situation in China,
with regards to fundamental civil, cultural and political freedoms
does not meet even the international standards recognized by
China.
The arms embargo has limited China's options from where it may seek
military hardware. Among the sources that were sought included the
former
Soviet bloc that it had a
strained relationship with as a result of the
Sino-Soviet split. Other willing suppliers
have previously included Israel and South Africa, but American
pressure has restricted future co-operation.
Compensation
Although the Chinese government never officially acknowledged
wrongdoing when it came to the incident, in April 2006 a payment
was made to the mother of one of the victims, the first publicized
case of the government offering redress to a Tiananmen-related
victim's family.
The payment was termed a "hardship
assistance", given to Tang Deying (唐德英) whose son, Zhou Guocong ( )
died at the age of 15 while in police custody in Chengdu
on 6 June 1989, two days after the Chinese Army
dispersed the Tiananmen protestors. She was reportedly paid
70,000
yuan (approximately $10,250
USD). This has been welcomed by various Chinese
activists, but was regarded by some as a measure to maintain social
stability and not believed to herald a changing of the Party's
official position.
UN report
On 21 November 2008, the
U.N. Committee against
Torture urged China to apologize for the incident, release
dissidents still held, and conduct an investigation of the events
surrounding the protest.
Notable participants
- Wang Dan, Wuerkaixi, Chai Ling.
Student leaders of the protests.
- Zhao Ziyang, former General
Secretary of the Communist Party of China
- Li Peng, former Premier of the Communist
Party of China
- Wen Jiabao, current Premier of the
Communist Party of China
- Liu Xiaobo, famous Chinese
dissident
- Yu Dongyue, former Chinese journalist
who threw paint-filled eggs onto the Mao Zedong portrait on the
Square
- Bei Dao, poet (ideological influence,
during the protests was participating at a conference in
Berlin)
- Cui Jian, the so-called "father of
Chinese rock," whose song "Nothing to
My Name" was considered an unofficial "anthem" for students and
protesters there
- "Tank Man", the unknown rebel who stood
in front of the line of approaching military tanks
Cultural references
Censored books, films and TV shows in mainland China
- Political Struggles in China's Reform Era by Yang Jisheng, for featuring secret interviews
with Zhao Ziyang and rejecting the Chinese government's position on
the protests.
- In 2006, the novel Forbidden City, by William Bell,
a fictionalised version of the protests, was banned.
- Summer Palace was
banned in 2006, ostensibly because it was screened without
permission, but likely also because of its mention of the Tiananmen
Square protests of 1989.
- Collection of
June Fourth Poems, a collection of poems about the
protests.
- Writings or interviews with Zhao Ziyang or Bao Tong are banned. As such, Conversations
with Zhao Ziyang in House Arrest by Zong Fengmin was not
published due to government pressure. However,
Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao
Ziyang was published in May 2009 after tapes were smuggled
out of China.
- International media programmes, such as CNN, are blacked out
when the anniversary on 4 June every year is mentioned on
televisions in Chinese hotels and homes for foreigners.
Songs
This event has inspired many references within lyrics and album art
- both in political and non-political usages.
The British rock band
The Cure, during a
concert in Rome on 4 June 1989, dedicated their last encore,
"Faith," to "everyone that died today in China." Singer
Robert Smith extended the song with
improvised lyrics about a person who has a gun held to their mouth
and urged to say "Yes" to the question "Do you love me?", but
finally refuses to do so. The bootlegged recording of this 15
minute version is known as "Tiananmen Faith". In the same year,
Joan Baez wrote and recorded her folk
anthem "
China" to commemorate the
democratic revolt.
Billy Joel's
history-themed single "
We
Didn't Start the Fire", released late 1989, mentions the event
in the line "China's under martial law."
The song
Tin Omen by the
Canadian
industrial band
Skinny Puppy is a reference to this uprising
and massacre.
Progressive rock group
Marillion wrote a
song titled "The King of Sunset Town" that uses imagery from the
Tiananmen Square incidents, such as "a puppet king on the Fourth of
June" and "before the Twenty-Seventh came". The song was released
on their album
Seasons End in September
1989.
American rock and folk music band
The
Hooters referred to the event in their hit song
500 Miles (from the album
Zig
Zag, recorded 1989), which is an updated version of the 1960s
folk song. The third verse begins with words: "A hundred tanks
along the square, One man stands and stops them there, Someday soon
the tide'll turn and I'll be free"
The band
System of a Down referred
to the event in the opening lines to the song "
Hypnotize", which are,
"Why don't you ask the kids at Tiananmen Square, was fashion the
reason why they were there?"
Shiny Happy People by
R.E.M. is supposedly an ironic reference to a
piece of roughly translated Chinese propaganda regarding the
massacre, two years before the song was released. The inference
apparently relates to how politics is controlled by those with
children in powerful positions, not idealistic revolting unhappy
students on the ground in Tiananmen Square. The idea is that
propaganda is often used to cover up stark weaknesses in political
systems. The song is mockingly played to encourage unknown
political candidates to be upbeat even under fire.
American thrash metal band
Slayer released a
song "Blood Red" on their 1990 album titled "Seasons in the Abyss",
which was inspired by the Tiananmen Square incident. The song
includes the lines: "Peaceful confrontation meets war machine,
Seizing all civil liberties... No disguise can deface evil, The
massacre of innocent people." The same year, another American
thrash metal band
Testament released the
song "Seven Days of May" protesting the Beijing massacre (though
the assault on Tiananmen Square took place on 3 June, not in May)
on their "Souls of Black" album, including the words: "In the
square they play the game, That's when the tanks and the army
came... They called the murders minimal, Described their victims as
criminals... Dead souls like you and me, Who only wanted free
society".
British anarchist pop band
Chumbawamba
released a song called "Tiananmen Square" on their 1990 album
Slap!. The lyrics are built around the fact the
People's Liberation Army murdered
the people. The Tank Man is also referenced ("You must've seen it,
the boy in the white shirt").
Sinéad O'Connor, on her 1990 album
I Do Not Want What I Haven't
Got, referenced the killings in her song "Black Boys on
Mopeds" with the following opening lines: "Margaret Thatcher on TV,
Shocked by the deaths that took place in Beijing".
British goth rock outfit
Siouxsie and the Banshees recorded
the song "The Ghost in You" for their album
Superstition in 1991. It is about
a person who witnessed the massacre returning to Tiananmen Square
and remembering the terrible emotions he/she experienced
there.
Roger Waters referred to the massacre
on the song "Watching TV" from his 1992 album
Amused to Death. In 1996,
Nevermore released the track titled "The Tiananmen
Man" on their
The
Politics of Ecstasy album. The song is about the Tank Man
who famously stood in front of the tanks in the Square. The song
"
Hypnotize" on the
2005 album
Hypnotize by
System
Of A Down is based on the event.
In 2006 a Chinese folk singer
Li Zhi wrote a
song titled "The Square", where the sound of bullets and ambulance
and voice of TAM mother Mrs. Ding were sampled. In 2007
Hed PE wrote a song entitled "Tiananmen Squared" on
their
Insomnia
album.
Calogero (French singer) also has a song called Tien An Men.
Portuguese band
Kalashnikov has a song
called
Tiananmen Tiananmen. The
chorus of the song says "Tiananmen Tiananmen, kill another yellow
men"
The Italian band
CCCP Fedeli alla
linea included a song called "Tien An Men" in their 1990 EP
Ragazza Emancipata.
In 2009, Hong Kong indie pop band
My
Little Airport wrote "
Donald Tsang,
Please Die" after Tsang suggested that the Tiananmen Square
massacre is insignificant compared to China's current economic
power. The lyrics include "Imagine today Donald someone chopped off
your hand, twenty years later that somebody has become the
Chief Executive. Will you stop
seeking justice because of his achievement?"
Punk Band,
Rancid, Make reference to
Tiananmen Square in their song "Arrested in Shanghai", with the
line "So I protest the massacres at the Tiananmen Square//My
friends said yo, stay away man, you better not go fucking back
there". The song reflects issues of media censorship and the lack
of Democratic freedom in China today
Australian hip-hop group Hilltop Hoods mentions Tiananmen Square in
one of their songs. "I feel like throwing a flag of protest in
Tiananmen Square"
Television
A primetime special hosted by
Tom Brokaw,
honored both the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations in
Beijing and the upcoming of the Berlin Wall in that momentous year
for human rights around the world, 1989.
On September 24, 1990, the series
Star Trek: The Next
Generation referenced a starship called the USS Tiananmen
Square as one of the many starships destroyed in a battle against
the
Borg, in the Battle at
Wolf 359, in the
Emmy
Award winning episode "
The Best Of Both
Worlds, Part 2", in honor of the protestors.
CNN news anchor
Kyra
Phillips drew criticism in March 2006 when she compared the
2006 youth protests in
France, in which it was later determined that no one was
killed, to the Tiananmen Square protests, saying "Sort of brings
back memories of Tiananmen Square, when you saw these activists in
front of tanks." CNN's
Chris
Burns told French Foreign Minister
Philippe Douste-Blazy that her
comments were "regrettable" and would receive some disciplinary
actions.
In April
2006, the PBS series Frontline produced an episode
titled "The Tank Man", which examined
his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests and the change that
has overtaken the P.R.C.
economically and politically since.
In
The Simpsons episode
Goo Goo Gai Pan when the family visits
Beijing, there is a plaque reading, "On this spot in 1989, nothing
happened", in Tiananmen Square, a reference to the Chinese
Government's denial and
censorship of the
protests. Selma also mirrored the scene of the "Tank Man" when she
stood in front of a line of tanks led by Madame Wu.
On the 3 June 2009 the
BBC aired the documentary
"Kate Adie returns to Tiananmen", in which reporter
Kate Adie revisits China and recalls the events
she witnessed in 1989.
Movies
The movie
Rapid
Fire, starring
Brandon Lee,
depicts images of the Tiananmen Square killings. In the movie,
Brandon Lee's character is the son of a US "government employee"
who died in the Tiananmen Square massacre; it is this death that
leads to the cynicism and anger of Lee's character through-out much
of the movie. Near the end, Powers Booth's character hands him a
folder that, it is assumed, contains additional information behind
his father's death.
Summer Palace (2006)
by Chinese director
Lou Ye contains
re-enacted scenes from Beijing streets during the days of the
protests in Tiananmen Square.
See also
Notes
Further reading
Internet video
External links
- [7321] - The birth of China Internet
Maintenance Day (CIMD)