1989 Tiananmen Square Incident

Textbook

Refer to handout “The 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident: Retrospective and Prospective Considerations”

• 3 June 1989
• a shock to Deng; the Chinese people couldn’t be controlled by the state throughout their lives
• student demonstration for democracy
• resulted in bloody repression; not just students but also other attendees
• “Gorbachev effect” of USSR, Hungary, Poland → “glasnost” (political openness/liberalization) of China
  • basically the USSR stopped sending repression troops to quell Sovietized states’ protests → more protests
  • Chinese protesters hoped it was China’s turn
• Deng was very vocally anti-democratic; the CCP considered the student movement dangerous and destabilizing, a threat to national security
  • rationale for such harsh measures
• Zhao Ziyang is considered a conservative (president of CCP, though after this he won’t be)
• basically the students had a problem with Everyone
  • Deng was considered by students to be a blocker to progress + embodiment of authoritarianism
    • broken bottles appeared in public places → expression of discontent with Deng Xiaoping (name means “small bottle”)
  • reinforced by death of Hu Yaobang, ousted by Deng in 1987 for supporting liberalization
  • Zhao pursued a policy of relative economic liberalism → inflation + official corruption (guantao)
  • Premier Li (adopted son of late Premier Zhou Enlai) as a symbol of nepotism + unbending commitment to communist orthodoxy
• April 17: Premier Li refuses a delegation of students at the entrance to Zhongnanhai (government compound) and instead sends a low-level National People’s Congress (NPC) official, “the rubber-stamp parliament”
  • insulting to the delegation
  • the delegation presented 7 demands:
    • copy here
• April 24: students up the ante by declaring a complete class boycott in Beijing
• April 25: Deng remains steadfast in his position. He blames the crisis on party failure to continue two earlier propaganda campaigns
  • copy campaigns
  • Deng basically blames Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang for pandering to the West for this fiasco
• People’s Daily newspaper called it “riots”
• May 13
• May 17: A group of intellectuals sign the “May 17 Declaration”
• May 19: Watershed moment. Zhao persuades some 3000 hunger strikers to end the strike in Tiananmen Square. He tearfully declares that “We deserve your criticism”, and promises to retract the “riot” editorial
  • in direct defiance of the May 16 Politburo veto on meeting their demands
  • rumors circulate about arguments between Zhao – conciliation – and Deng – tough measures
• May 20: Premier Li declares martial law.
• Zhao Ziyang is purged – the conservatives come into power
• May 21: New CCP propaganda structure, Martial Law Ideological Leadership Group convened under Li Peng in Zhongnanhai
• May 24: Urgent enlarged meeting of CMC
• May 25: Radio Beijing refers to the Tiananmen students as “counterrevolutionaries” – the deadliest accusation in a communist regime
• Zhao Ziyang would have been Deng’s successor had he not slipped up → opportunity for Jiang Jiemin, changed the course of Jiang’s political career
  • catapulted him into the top political position
  • no military connections + no firm power base (no guanxi) → struggles + his good luck that landed him here
    • the military hasn’t been this key to the state since 1975

aftermath

• international outpouring of opinions; Western countries like France, Sweden and the Netherlands suspended official ties. Britain and Switzerland
• the U.S. was very happy to condemn China
• Fang Lizhi – “Chinese Sakharov”, a professor and literary giant, who sheltered in the U.S. embassy after the collapse of the democracy movement
  • China wanted to throw him into prison and make him an example
  • U.S. negotiated for his departure from China – political asylum in the U.S. for Fang
  • he moved to the U.K. with his wife after a second visit to China by General Scowcroft and implemented in July 1990
• China tried to do PR and soft-image repair in 1990 with the Asian Games after economic re-opening; it did not work
  • hoping for a USSR event; rejection of communism and embracement of open democracy
    • but communism is fundamental to China; how can it reject?
• South Korean investment surged
• change comes very slowly

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transition from command economy to semi-command-economy

• Deng was the face of economic transition (communism) in China → people unhappy with this progress took it out on him