Manifestations of the place Tian\' anmen

The manifestations of the place Tian' anmen took place between the April 15th and on June 4th, 1989 on the Place Tian' anmen with Beijing, the capital of the Popular republic of China. They took the form of a movement of students, intellectuals and workmen Chinese, which denounced the Corruption and required political reforms and democratic. The dispute extended to the majority from the big cities from China like Shanghai, and leads to Beijing with a series of great demonstrations and hunger strikes organized on the place Tian' anmen. After several attempts at negotiation, the Chinese government proclaimed the state of siege the May 20th 1989, and utilized the army the June 4th 1989. The repression of the movement caused a great number of civilian victims (of a few hundreds to a few thousands according to the sources), and of many arrests in the months which followed. Several political directors favorable to the movement were dismissed and placed under house arrest, in particular the General secretary of the Chinese Communist party Zhao Ziyang. The repression of the protest movement carried a durable crushing argument to the political reforms as a Popular republic of China. The government returned the foreign journalists and strictly controlled the cover of the event by the Chinese press. Abroad, repression caused a general judgment of the mode of Beijing.

Designation of the event

This movement is known in China under the name of “movement of June 4th” (六四运动) or simply “6 - 4” (六四). This designation is copied on that of two other demonstrations: that of May 4th, 1919 (Movement of May 4th) and that of April 5th, 1976 (Movement of April 5th).

However, the official term used by the government of the Popular republic of China east “political Disturbances of spring and the summer 1989” (春夏之交的政治風波).

Out of China, it is sometimes called “Massacre of the place Tian' anmen” (天安門大屠殺), “massacre of June 4th” (六四大屠殺) or “massacres of Beijing (北京大屠殺) In France, one also speaks about the “Printemps of Beijing”, although this term is more used to indicate the democratic movements of the period 1977-1978.

Origins of the movement

At the end of the years 1980, the Popular republic of China is directed by the general secretary of the Chinese Communist party (PCC) Deng Xiaoping (August 22nd 1904 - February 19th 1997). This one decides to liberalize the political system and economic. It wishes in particular to launch the “Four Modernizations” (industry and trade, education, military organization, agriculture) and to open the country with the overseas investments.

In 1989, the policy of Deng Xiaoping is criticized by the students, the professors of the higher education and intellectuals who claim the “fifth modernization”, that of the democracy and the multi-party system. Those are influenced by the Glasnost, implemented in the USSR by Mikhail Gorbatchev. The students denounce the insecurity which reigns on the campuses and the lack of outlets in the cities of the littoral. The teachers regret not being paid better. The intellectuals make circulate petitions in order to claim the release of the political prisoners. Highly repressed in the beginning, these ideas of political reform receive, about the middle of the Eighties, a more favorable reception on behalf of the reformists close to Deng Xiaoping, in particular Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, General secretary and Chinese Prime Minister until 1987.

The student's demonstrations of 1989 make following several similar movements, into 1983,1985, then during the winter 1986-1987. Beyond the requests for political reform, the principal demands relate then to the right of association (creation of independent student trade unions) and the transparency (in particular on the incomes of the executives and their family).

Inside the Chinese Communist party, two lines clash at the end of the years 1980. Behind Deng Xiaoping, some require an acceleration of the reforms, as well economic as political. On the other hand, and vis-a-vis the rise of the inflation caused by the liberalization of the prices, the traditional adversaries of Deng Xiaoping, in particular the economist Chen Yun, preach a stop of the reforms, even a return to the control of the State. Until 1986, Deng Xiaoping is surrounded mainly of reformists, in particular Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang.

However, the demonstrations coeds of 1986-1987 reinforce the partisans of a stop of the reforms and push Deng Xiaoping to dismiss Hu Yaobang, then General secretary of the Party, and to take as Prime Minister Li Peng, one protected from Chen Yun. The former Prime Minister, Zhao Ziyang, a close relation of Hu, take the head of the Party. The Chinese direction is then divided between two factions, reformists (with Zhao) and conservatives (with Li). The dissensions between these two groups play a determining role in the movement of 1989.

These divergences at the top are also found inside the Chinese company. Second half of years 1980 sees acceleration of inflation and increase of unemployment, which opposes the workmen, who wish a return to the old system, to the intellectuals who wish an acceleration of the reforms.

The death of Hu Yaobang and beginnings of the movement (April 15th - April 25th)

Old the General secretary of the Chinese Communist party, Hu Yaobang, dismissed in 1987, dies the April 15th 1989, of the continuations of an heart attack. He is admired for his courage at the end of the Cultural revolution and his role in the reforms. Spontaneous demonstrations take place in all the country, which forces the government to organize national funeral the April 22nd.

On April 16th and 17th, of the spontaneous gatherings take place places Tian' anmen and require the political rehabilitation of Hu Yaobang. The 18, a few thousands of students gather on the place and organize a sit-in, in front of the Large palace of the People (the National Assembly). It is the first great demonstration. Only one national newspaper, the Daily of Sciences and Technologies (科技日报) gives an account of it the following day; the remainder of the press is muzzled by the department of Propaganda. April 18th, in the evening, a few thousands of students try to penetrate with the Zhongnanhai, place of residence of the government. They are pushed back by the police force. The campuses are covered with posters claiming the continuation of the reforms and criticizing Deng Xiaoping.

In the night of the April 21st, official funeral day before of Hu Yaobang, some: 100000 students move towards the place Tian' anmen, where they settle before it is closed by the police force. An important gathering, prohibited by the authorities, takes place on the place Tian' anmen, in front of the monument with the heroes of the people. A delegation asks to attend funerals. With Beijing, these gatherings are peaceful, but slogans requiring a political reform, continuing those of the demonstrations of 1986-1987, which had caused the fall of Hu Yaobang, appear. April 22nd, the students ask to see Li Peng, considered as the rival of Hu Yaobang. The same day, of the demonstrations degenerate into province (with Xi' year and Changsha).

With Shanghai, April 19th, World Economic Herald (世界经济导报), magazine close to reformists, prepares for his number to appear April 24th file devoted to Hu Yaobang, in which must appear an article of Yan Jiaqi which gives an account of the manifestation of April 18th to Beijing, and asks a revaluation of the dismissal of Hu. The April 21st, a person in charge of the Party of Shanghai requires of its editor association Qin Benli to modify, or delete this article. As this one refuses, it turns to the secretary of the Party, Jiang Zemin, which intervenes to make prohibit the article. Meanwhile, some specimens were diffused, the others appear with a white page. In reprisals, the editor as a chief is dismissed, and the magazine put under supervision of the Party of Shanghai.

Demonstrations and the hunger strike (April 26th - May 16th)

April 26th, a leading article of the Quotidien of the People qualifies the demonstrations coeds of “disorders to the law and order”, made of a “very small number”. It prohibits all new demonstration. As of the evening of the 26, agitation is strong in the universities of the capital, in particular with the Université of Beijing and the Université of the People. The students reject the control of university associations which are between the hands of the Chinese Communist party. They found their own autonomous association and choose representatives. The following days of great demonstrations take place in Beijing: April 27th, they gather some: 50000 people. The movement also extends in province and it develops when the workmen join the movement in order to call into question the corruption of the mode and to protest against inflation, unemployment and the luxury in which live the executives of the PCC.

May 4th, the demonstration commemorative of the Mouvement of May Four mixes with that of the students. It is held in the calm one and good mood. Other great demonstrations are born in the big cities from the country like Urumqi, Shanghai and Chongqing; later, the movement touches HongKong, Taiwan and the communities of the Chinese diaspora in North America and Europe.

A little later the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbatchev, must pay in Beijing a historical visit. It involves the presence of many foreign journalists in China. May 12th, the students start an hunger strike unlimited on the place Tian' anmen. It will end up concerning more than 1000 people. They are joined by delegations of students of province, who also camp on the place.

From the advertisement of the hunger strike, the studied movement receives the support of a broad part of the population. In Beijing, demonstrations of support, which gather students, workmen, executives, and even sometimes of the police officers, take place almost the every day, joining together, starting from May 15th several hundreds of thousands of people.

Last negotiations (May 16th - May 19th)

The Chinese leaders are divided as for the student movement. The preserving faction, carried out by Li Peng, but which gathers military officials, such as Yang Shangkun, wishes a setting with the authoritative step of the demonstrators. The reformists, around Zhao Ziyang, wish a negotiated and peaceful solution. Throughout May, the contacts follow one another and the general opinion in the student's mediums is that a solution will be found. This seems confirmed on May 19th by the last visit (and last public appearance) of Zhao Ziyang with the students of the place, during which he makes the following speech:

Students, we arrive too late. We are sorry. You speak about us, you criticize us, it is legitimate. I do not come here to ask you to forgive us. What I want to say to you, it is that certain of your comrades are already very weak, after seven days of hunger strike, and that they cannot continue thus. More the hard hunger strike, more it is likely to cause permanent damage with their health. They are in danger, and most important, today, it is that you agree to put an end quickly to the hunger strike. I know that you observe this strike so that the Party and the government give a satisfactory answer to the questions that you addressed to them, but it seems to me that the dialog between us is already started, and that some of your questions could be solved only by one long process. For example, your questions about the nature of this movement, and about the responsibilities, are, in my opinion, of the things which we will be able to finally solve, and on which we will arrive finally to a common vision. However, you must understand that the situation is complex, and that it will take us time. You cannot, whereas the hunger strike enters its seventh day already, be obstinated to ask for satisfactory answers to your questions to put an end to it.

You are still young, have many days in front of you, you must live in good health, to be able to be born when China will have carried out its four modernizations. You are not like us, who are already old, and for which that does not have any more importance. Your country, your parents, gave itself evil to send to you to the University! You have ten nine, twenty years, and you want, like that, to sacrifice your lives? Students, be a little reasonable. The current location is already very serious, you know it, the Party and the state is very anxious, all the company is in distress. In addition, Beijing is the capital, but everywhere, the situation worsens day after day. This situation cannot last. Students, you are full with good intentions, you want the good of your country, but if this situation extends, if one loses control of it, that will have all kinds of fatal consequences.

Lastly, I will tell you this only thing. If you cease the hunger strike, the government will not benefit from it to put an end to the dialog, certainly not! The questions which you put, we will continue to discuss them. The things advance slowly, but recognize that we are progressing on certain questions. But today, I wanted only to see you, and to tell you my thought. I hope that you will be able to think calmly of these questions. In confused situations, one cannot think calmly of these things. You are full with energy, because you are young. But, also, we were young for us expressed, we lay down through the roads, without thinking whole of the consequences. Finally, I beg you sincerely, students, to reflect calmly after. Many things can be solved. And I hope that you will quickly put a term at the hunger strike.

After this speech, each one is persuaded of the imminence of a negotiated solution. The calls to the end of the hunger strike, even with the evacuation of Tian' anmen, multiply in the students. An advertisement of the government is planned for the evening, which must, thinks one, to put a peaceful term at the movement.

The martial law (May 20th - June 3rd)

During the day of May 19th, Zhao Ziyang, favorable to a negotiated payment of the conflict, is put in minority by the partisans of a hard line, carried out by Li Peng. The evening, via high the speakers of the place Tian' anmen, Yuan Driven, the government spokesman, announces to the students the proclamation of the martial law.

Zhao Ziyang immediately is dismissed, and placed under house arrest. It will remain there until its death. Its collaborator close relations fall in disgrace. Around Li Peng find the President of the Republic, Yang Shangkun, and his/her brother Yang Baibing, very close to the Popular Armée with Release. As soon as after the advertisement, of the soldiers of the armed 38ème (in charge of the defense of Beijing) give an opinion around the capital.

In Beijing, the students remain on the place, and draw up stoppings with the doors of the city. May 20th, the army moves back in front of the pacifist demonstrators. Chai Ling takes the direction of autonomous coordination coed. May 30th, a statue of the goddess of the democracy which points out the Statue of Freedom of New York, is set up on the place by the students of the academy of Beautiful arts.

The repression of the movement (June 3rd - June 9th)

The night of the 3 to the June 4th 1989, soldiers of 27th and 28th army enter Beijing. They draw with the machine-gun against the people who interpose without weapon. Clashes violent one with the demonstrators take place on the axes which lead to the Place Tian' anmen, in particular with Muxidi, where a column of vehicles is burnt. The engagements continue until the army reaches the place, crushing with its tanks the demonstrators remained under the tents; the place is evacuated at dawn. In the days which follow, the army occupies Beijing, of the sporadic confrontations still take place the night. The studied movement is also repressed in province and a severe purging is carried out in all the country.

If it is clear that the intervention made a rather great number of victims, their number varies clearly according to the sources. The Chinese government gives 300 dead whose 23 students, the Western sources and the Chinese Red Cross suggest from 2600 to 3000 dead (for the only town of Beijing, no data is available for the confrontations in province).

The nature even of the confrontations is prone to controversy. The official explanation given by the Chinese government affirms that the majority of the demonstrators were criminals, and hooligans, without bond with the students and that the army intervened to save socialism in China. The nonChinese sources see a majority of young students there. The fact that a big number of students was stopped in the following days in bond with the events of June 4th seems to corroborate this thesis. In addition, if it is not disputed that the intervention made victims (the controversies relate to their number), the term massacre of Tian' anmen , often used to describe the event is incorrect, insofar as there were little, or not, of violences on the place itself.

Consequences

The intervention draws aside definitively from the capacity Zhao Ziyang, then general secretary of the Chinese Communist party. It will remain under house arrest until its death. Bao Tong, its political secretary, is stopped. Condemned in 1992, it is under house arrest since 1996. Deng Xiaoping replaces Zhao by Jiang Zemin, the general secretary of the Party of Shanghai, until there little known.

In the population, the resumption in hand is fast. Deng Xiaoping, silencer throughout all event, pronounces the June 9th a speech, where it summarizes the official position on the events. During the twelve months which follows boards of inquiry are created, which questions all those which took share with the events. This puts an end definitively to the student movements years 1980.

As of the end of the summer, a series of opinion campaigns are launched, around patriotic topics (in particular the character of Lei Feng), and of the Four Cardinal Principles (Socialist Way, Dictatorship of the proletariat, Marxisme Leninism Thought Mao Tsé Toung, Prééminence of the Communist party). The media which had been favorable to the students (or with Zhao Ziyang) are given to the step. The idea of political reform or democratization, under consideration until there by certain elements of the Party, is abandoned.

Abroad

Abroad, the intervention causes a general criticism of the Chinese government. Some retaliatory measures are taken, the principal one being an embargo on the sales of weapons in China - always into force - UNO, the European Union as well as the stop of the American military matter co-operation and information (closing of the two stations of listening along the Russian border).

The Gouvernement of the United States offered to prolong their visa with the Chinese students of the country. France decides to freeze its relations with Beijing. The stockmarkets in Asia react to the fall.

At the semi-official level, in front of the violence of the repression of the Chinese security services, the CIA reacts with the operation Yellow Bird, on order of George Bush: In coordination with DGSE and the LOCATED, it succeeds has to make to exfiltrer number of dissenting policies Chinese. For six months, after the beginning of repression, being based on its best agents in China, HongKong has, and Macao, the CIA makes get sure refuges and means of escape. Thus " disparaissent" the dissidents Li Lu (One of the principal organizers and leaders of the dissenting student's movement) and Wuer Kaizi (student Leader of origin Ouïgour), then Wan Runnan and Yan Jiaqi. It is estimated that hundreds of dissidents will be thus exfiltrés towards HongKong, and approximately 200 even 250 people on the whole will be saved at the time of this operation.

Tian' anmen in China

The official explanation, provided by Deng Xiaoping a few days after the June 4th and inlassablement taken again since, is that a small number of rioters, essentially of taken again justice and dissatisfied unemployed, had attacked the soldiers who came to put order on the place Tian' anmen, and the army had had to be defended. In particular, the official thesis insists on the fact (probable) that it there of did not die on the place, and affirms that the victims were not students. The studied movement of April and May, for its part, is qualified disturbance political .

Nearly twenty years after, the events of 1989 are always a subject taboo in China. They are not evoked in the books of history, nor taught. Each year, on June 4th, the place Tian' anmen is very supervised, to avoid any commemoration. Internet sites foreigners on the subject are censured or blocked (the presence of articles over 1989 was quoted like one of the reasons of the blocking of Wikipedia in China), and of the search engines such as Google and Yahoo had, to settle in China, to adapt their programs so that they prohibit any effective research on these events. Lastly, the simple mention of these subjects on Web sites or Chinese blogs can cause closing of it.

Also, of many Chinese, in particular those born little before or after 1989, have only one very vague idea what did without. The rare works of Chinese historians on the subject were published in the special area of HongKong (autonomous until 1997), and are difficult to reach, and the Western sources on the subject are not diffused in China.

Chronology of the events

April 15th: Died of Hu Yaobang, general ex-secretary reformist of the Chinese PC. A few hundreds of students come to deposit flowers places Tian' anmen.
April 17th: 2.000 students express their mourning places Tian' anmen and ask for the resignation of the government.
April 18th: 10.000 demonstrators around a studying core present seven claims to the National Assembly.
April 19th: Attacks Zhongnanhai, head office of the PC and residence of the leaders, two nights of continuation, by 8.000 people “including five thousand arrivals of the majority of the universities of the Chinese capital”. Interventions of the police force.
April 21st: 200.000 demonstrators on the place Tian' anmen, of which 50.000 will face the interdict until the following day.
April 22nd: Funeral of Hu Yaobang, places Tian' anmen, in spite of the demonstrations. Riots with Xi' year (building of the government attacks, destruction of bus of tourists, plunderings, fires) and Changsha (plunderings, confrontations, arrests).
April 25th: Deng Xiaoping for submission to the top executives of the party analyzes, which will be public only on June 3rd: “It is not a question of an ordinary student movement, but of a riot (...). We must react quickly (...) without fearing criticisms nor the reactions from abroad. (...) If they are the only students who are agitated, it is not serious. The main thing is to prevent that they do not agitate the company as a whole. (...)”
April 27th: Between 100.000 and 500.000 people express in Beijing against the leading article of the Quotidien of the people of the day before, which taxes the movement with “splinter plot”.
April 28th: Supposed beginning of the secret negotiations between government and students.
May 4th: 300.000 demonstrators in Beijing to commemorate the demonstrations antijaponaises of 1919.
May 13rd: 2.000 students begin an hunger strike, places Tian' anmen, thus again occupied as of the following day.
May 15th: Arrival of Gorbatchev in Beijing to reconcile the USSR and China. Its way must be diverted because of the occupation of the center of the city by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators.
May 18th: Departure of Gorbatchev, to which the occupation continues center of Beijing stole the high-speed motorboat. “Second demonstration of more than one million people. ”
May 19th: Creation of an autonomous Union of the workmen of Beijing, which is put at once in strike. Because the base of the movement is not primarily any more coed, Li Peng, Prime Minister, and Zhao Ziyang, first secretary of the PCC, starts to negotiate with the student chiefs.
May 20th: Martial law. The army intervenes, but without weapons. The population of Beijing blocks her advance through the streets of the capital. The students take again their stopped hunger strike the day before, and organize themselves against the not-students, places Tian' anmen. More than 100.000 demonstrators in Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen. Scuffles between workmen and soldiers with Changsha.
May 30th: First arrests of workmen and “flying Tigers” (motorcylcists with the service of the demonstrations).
May 31st: The government organizes a counter-demonstration: 20.000 people, of which many police officers.
June 3rd: New intervention without weapons of the army. New mobilization. The army again blocked by crowd does not manage to approach Tian' anmen. Scuffles. The “population of Beijing” takes the weapons. Barricades.
June 4th: The army draws. The students negotiate their departure of the place Tian' anmen, which they had prohibited with the remainder population. This one invests it to defend it: this battle will make from 300 to 3.000 dead. Demonstrations of more than 100.000 people with Shanghai, Nanjing, Hongkong. Calls to the general strike.
June 5th: Engagements in Beijing. Riot with Chengdu: 300 dead. With Lanzhou, the repression of the demonstration would have made 200 died.
June 6th: Engagements in Beijing. Heavy weapons in the southern and western suburbs. Barricades and violent one confrontations with Shanghai: 50 dead.
June 7th: The engagements continue with Beijing. Confrontations and barricades with Shanghai, Chengdu, Qingdao, Xi' year.
June 8th: As of the morning, the army occupies any Beijing. Riot with Hongkong.
June 9th: Deng Xiaoping, announced died by Taiwanese television, reappears on the screens.
June 15th: First death sentences (there were approximately 1.500 arrests).
June 20th: First official executions: 3 workmen of Shanghai.

References in the popular culture

Books, films and television programs censured in China

In 2006, Summer Palace (film) was interdict in China because it mentioned the manifestations of the place Tian' anmen.
In May 2007, the book Collection off June Fourth Poems was interdict in China.
In July 2007, the book Zhao Ziyang 'S words during his housearrest was also interdict in China.

Music

the Brésilien group of Death metal Sepultura used many video extracts of the manifestations of the place Tian' anmen in its clip Refuse/Resist.

Cinema

the film of the Chinese realizer Lou Ye, a Chinese youth , is held on bottom of the demonstrations.

Sources

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