The Tiananmen Square Incident happened on June 4, 1989. It is also known as the June Fourth Incident. It was a peaceful demonstration led by the students in Beijing in the spring of 1989. The demonstration received a lot of support among local citizens. It also exposed deep contradiction and dissidence among the China’s political leaders. Authorities forcibly suppressed that peaceful demonstration. Tiananmen Square Massacre happened on June 3–4. Troops with assault rifles and tanks opened the fire on unarmed civilians. They inflicted thousands of casualties. According to some estimations, more than 2,500 have died and over 7,000 were injured.
Events of those days were described in numerous literature and cinematograph sources, such as documentary film The Gate of Heavenly Peace or Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square, in books like Modern China: A Very Short Introduction by Rana Mitter or I Love Dollars And Other Stories of China by Wen Zhu.
The events of those days are clearly described in three-hour documentary film The Gate of Heavenly Peace. It is a chronicle of the six-week period, which depicts horrors of June 1989. This day-by-day chronicle represents archival footage and interviews of the victims of the Tiananmen Square Incident. The student participant of the demonstration describes events of that incident as follows:
After the shooting on the night of June 3rd, when I found out that so many people had died, I felt neither anger nor sorrow – nothing. I was completely numb, there was a huge emptiness. I just couldn’t believe they would open fire. (The Gate of Heavenly Peace)
Many leaders in the government consider students who took to the streets as an echo of the chaos of previous Cultural Revolution. Exactly that kind of chaos they were afraid of the most. To prevent the illusive threat, the Politburo headed by Deng Xiaoping authorised People’s Liberation Army troops to clear the Tiananmen Square (Wen n.p.). The bloodshed were unprecedented, despite that Beijing was known for its numerous revolutions and protests. The scale of military mobilisation was huge.
Deng Xiaoping’s reforms were popular, but by that time, many Chinese were disappointed and became concerned about their future. Deng Xiaoping became obsessed with Western capitalism ideas, while capitalism was supposed to be Communistic China’s archenemy. Deng called his course ideas ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’. It is clear what usually happens in the early stages of such course. The savage competition, discharges and poor income are among the first consequences. There is no protection for the weak. In the profit pursuit, hardline leaders disregarded the impact on the society. Environment terribly suffered as well. The reforms were necessary, but people had to protect their interests, their own future. Therefore, many Chinese spoke in support of democratic ideas, freedom of the press and freedom of speech.
First, it was a simple mourning procession concerned with the death of Hu Yaobang, a liberal reformer, but it turned out to protests in April 1989. The students, who gathered in Tiananmen Square to honour Hu Yaobang, started to discuss inflation, party corruption, etc. One of the students said in his interview, “Hu Yaobang’s death made it possible for a crowd to gather in a public place, and gave them something to discuss… Most of the talk was about our own lives” (The Gate of Heavenly Peace). They started to call government accountability. The workers wanted to restore their control over industry. As the protests went up, about a million people gathered in the Tiananmen Square. “With every passing day, Hu and mourning in his name were acquiring greater significance” (The Gate of Heavenly Peace). The hunger strike provoked the demonstrators and protests all over the China. In the middle of May, protests were led in about 400 cities. Ultimately, Deng Xiaoping with support of other party members ordered to “clear the Square by force killing large numbers” of civilians, including students (Mitter 68). About 300,000 troops were mobilised to Beijing.
After such brutal suppression of peaceful protests, authorities conducted arrests all over the country. Many of the protesters and their supporters turned out in a most wanted list. Foreign journalists were expelled. The domestic press were under the strict control. Internal security was strengthened. Zhao Ziyang was ousted. He was replaced with Jiang Zemin. However, political and economic reforms were halted. They resumed only after Deng Xiaoping’s 1992 southern tour. The Tiananmen Square Incident laid a shadow of distrust over the Communistic party of China. Such horrible bloodshed could not be justified.
Naturally, the Chinese government was condemned for brutality and bloodshed by the outer world. From numerous Chinese and foreign literature and cinematograph, we can see what horrors brought oppression and injustice of the Tiananmen Square Incident. The political and social systems of Communism have not vindicated themselves. “It no longer grips the minds and imaginations of the Chinese people” (The Gate of Heavenly Peace). Communism started to lose credibility long before the massacre in Beijing in 1989. Yet, it has not lost its power. Power without faith leads to the resentment, chaos and despair.
Works Cited
Mitter, Rana. Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.
The Gate of Heavenly Peace. Dir. Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton. Independent Television Service (ITVS), 1995. Film.
Wen, Zhu. I Love Dollars and Other Stories of China, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Print.