Bodies of student protesters killed by the People's Liberation Army lie in the Tiananmen Square - June 4, 1989
From a poster on
Reddit:
I recognise this street. It is Changan Jie, one of the major boulevards that run through Tiananmen. The street lamps on that boulevard is very unique.
This is something I wrote earlier about the incident.
One of the vice premiers (Li Peng) held talks with student leaders such as Wang Dan (who was exiled and is now an international academic) to address their concerns, such as officials' corruption, freedom of speech and liberalisation. Li Peng did not like the student leaders much and the student leaders were... rather arrogant and douchy about their leadership status. The whole thing was televised as well, and it was seen as a severe loss of face by the Chinese leadership.
Moreover, June 4 was the culmination of a series of events since April of that year. It was a prolonged student protest, a protest that happened after the death of Hu Yaobang, one of the prominent reformers (economic reform, that is) in the Chinese Communist Party (hereby after shortened to the CCP). Students started gathering at Tiananmen Square spontaneously to mourn the death of Hu in April, and also all over the country. The last time such emotional outpouring of grief happened in China was in 1976, when the masses gathered to mourn the death of Zhou Enlai, and it lead shortly after to the collapse of the regime in power, the Gang of Four. The lesson imparted by that must be still fresh in the CCP leadership's minds.
The CCP leadership itself was also split between the reformers and the more hardline conservatives. Zhao Ziyang, the General Secretary at the time, was a reformer and he did not want an open confrontation with the students. Not so Li Peng (if you haven't figured out already I really don't like that guy, and most Beijingers also don't like him - my grandparents, who are both CCP members, hold nothing but contempt for him), who wanted a good old fashioned crackdown.
The visit by Gorbachev in May further galvanised the issue. Students had been occupying the Square since April, and a hunger strike by students began 2 days before his visit. This was very very embarrassing for the CCP leadership, because every State visit has its welcome ceremony held at the Square - imagine the White House occupied by all the Occupy Wall Street protesters, and you can get a similar picture.
Anyway, by this stage, it was no longer just the students demonstrating - the labour unions chimed in, as well as a range of other groups with their own grievances. So it was unclear to the CCP as to who they should deal with, over what issues. A meeting was held by the Politburo with Deng Xiaoping (who was the de facto leader and power behind the throne of China from 1977 until 1992, even though he had retired in the 80s) and he criticised the approach held by Zhao, which was non-confrontational. The CCP leadership decided to stop the demonstration and remove students from premise.
Marshall law was declared on the 20th, but a lot of Beijing residents, low level CCP members and the police all had sympathy for the students, and the 38th Army Group, which is based near Beijing, refused to go in and quell the students (and its commander requested a written order for the suppression of students - he was immediately suspended from duty). So nothing had really happened until the 1st of June.
Meanwhile, the student group was becoming a ******, with different factions arising, lack of organisation, big hygiene problems (a gathering of tens of thousands of people in a few square kms means a big open door latrine) and is running out of steam - but a styrofoam statue called the 'Lady of Liberty' was erected in Tiananmen Square by a group of art college students, and that had re-ignited the momentum and passion. Moreover, the statue was facing directly towards the Portrait of Mao Zedong, hung on the walls of Tiananmen itself. The symbolism is quite clear.
So, anyway, the CCP had had enough and by the 1st of June the top leadership plus the Party Elders (the Founding Fathers of the PRC) decided to remove students from premise, peaceful or not. 27th Army Group was moved in from a different region and they had no qualms about using force, even against other PLA units who may be sympathetic towards the students. The crackdown began in earnest on the 3rd of June, and by the 4th of June it was pretty well known across the world.
It might also be interesting to note that the reason why the image of the Tank Man is so famous and widespread is because the CCP had significantly relaxed media law, letting international outlets to cover the student protests. The Tank Man image was captured by a CNN photog, and this open media reform is one thing that the CCP won't repeat in a hurry.
Following the June 4th incident, the reformers in the party lost. Zhou Ziyang was purged from the Party and held in house arrest until his death in 2009 or 2010. Li Peng and his gang won out, and that's why Li Peng is known as the 'Butcher of Beijing'.
TLDR: A peaceful student protest over corruption and liberalisation fragmented and became leaderless. The Chinese Communist Party was split, and the conservatives won out. It was an opportunity for China to liberalise from the top up, but the chance was missed and the ensuing tragedy is...just tragic.
Lady Of Liberty
with economists linking the surge to speculative fund inflows.
