The Tiananmen Square protest began on April 15, 1989, in Beijing…which would conclude about fifty days later, on June 4, with a forceful military intervention… A repression of which the most famous image is undoubtedly that of the slender student, with two shopping bags in hand, trying to block the advance of the tanks, climbing onto the first one in the long line of them, attempting unsuccessfully to persuade the tank driver to halt.
The sequence of events was as follows. On April 15, the former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (PCC), the reformist Hu Yaobang, a close collaborator of Deng Xiaoping, passed away, who had participated in economic reforms and denounced the Cultural Revolution, had been dismissed in 1987 “for serious political errors” due to student demonstrations that had shaken the country in that year and the year before. Two years later, in his honor and to demand a clear political rehabilitation, students took to the streets again, even though State funerals were already scheduled to honor “a great proletarian revolutionary.” These spontaneous demonstrations also occur in other provinces of the country, and in the following days, the demands become more radical, and the number of protesters rapidly increases. The need for democratic reforms, issues of corruption and nepotism, and demands for higher wages concern a large part of the population and do not leave some elements of the government and the party unaffected, including the secretary Zhao Ziyang, who success to Hu, who is also of a reformist orientation, had been persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and later favored in his political rise by Deng himself. In early May, the protest extends to workers and students from schools, involving an increasing number of provinces and reaching Hong Kong and Taiwan. It also finds support among overseas Chinese communities. But the protesters face strong opposition from a significant portion of the party, government, and the army, especially from the Prime Minister Li Peng, the President of the Republic Yang Shangkun, and Deng himself, who fears that political reforms might hinder the process of opening up the market – according to his “socialism with Chinese characteristics” concept – that the country was undergoing for significant economic transformation. The movement is particularly active in universities, where strikes and independent associations from the CCP are organized. However, it lacks unity, strong organization, or clear leadership, which complicates the negotiation process. The movement is not explicitly anti-socialist or counter-revolutionary; in fact, the protesters sing “The Internationale” in the squares. However, the demand for democracy is evident and transparent. In reaction to the inadequate responses from the government, on May 13, the students declare a hunger strike, marking the beginning of the most dramatic phase of the protest. The visit of Gorbachev on May 16 and 17, despite the government’s attempts to censor what is happening, provides the movement with greater international visibility. On May 19, a peaceful solution still seems possible after a mediation attempt by Zhao, who earnestly asks the students to end the hunger strike, promising to keep the doors of dialogue open. On that same day, however, his position, supported even by elements of the army, government, and party, becomes the minority and martial law is declared. Zhao is dismissed and sentenced to house arrest, Beijing is surrounded by the army, and the situation descends into days of open guerrilla warfare until the movement’s final defeat on June 4th. Opinions regarding the number of casualties during those days and the subsequent period of purges vary significantly: estimates range from around 400 to much higher figures of 2,500 deaths and beyond. However, the Chinese government has consistently denied that there was a massacre, and an article from The Daily Telegraph in 2011, based on dispatches from Western embassies obtained through WikiLeaks, appears to support the government’s position. Indeed, the “public” memory of those events has been suppressed and opposed in China, but not in the West. The Tiananmen Square protests were the result, in the 1980s, of a search for political identity in China emerging from the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. At that time, the public opinion and political elite aimed to introduce a system of checks and balances to prevent a recurrence of the problems that had led the country to ruin over the past decade. Even though the prospect of a Western-style multi-party democracy was never seriously considered, there was a debate within the party and intellectual circles regarding better government oversight and a certain level of separation between political and executive functions. In his memoir, former Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang wrote, “There should be a system to supervise the power of the Communist Party. Power cannot be monopolized.” At the same time, economic transformations were initiated, attracting foreign investments and enabling the emergence of private enterprises. The country had achieved a certain level of prosperity, but it also witnessed an increase in inequalities and corruption. Initially, only a few were allowed to begin accumulating wealth, which contributed to these issues. Concerns about corruption and the debate on the political system converged in the spring of 1989 during the Tiananmen Square protests led by students. For approximately two months, the protesters openly demanded profound changes, challenging the party, and according to some prominent figures within the organization, they posed a threat to the Communist government. Leader Deng Xiaoping and the more conservative senior members of the party feared that the demonstrations might spread to other cities and be exploited by foreign forces to overthrow the Communist regime. In the aftermath of the June 4th crackdown, the reformists were purged from the party, and political stability became the top priority. The adoption of a system of checks and balances gave way to the fear of uprisings. Since then, the party has maintained its authoritarian power and kept any political reforms at bay. “The maintenance of stability is a product of June 4th. After June 4th, it became necessary to maintain stability by force,” explains Bao Pu, the son of Bao Tong, an advisor to Zhao. By doing so, the party hoped to exhaust the demands for justice for the Tiananmen protesters, a strategy designed to minimize risks, according to analysts.
