Tiananmen Square Massacre

Even with her previous experiences at Beijing University and at Big Joy Farm, Wong still held some belief that the Chinese system wasn’t as bad as it was sometimes made out to be. This event proved to her that it was. “The enormity of the massacre hit home…Although it had been years since I was a Maoist, I still had harbored some small hope for China. Now even that was gone” (259). As a reporter Wong was able to view the progression of the protests in leading up to the massacre, and in viewing it understood that the Chinese people were much more independent than they had previously demonstrated over the past 50 years. She had continuously seen the Chinese people following what they were told between learning in school or with physical labor, yet this protest was one of the first large scale displays of the unacceptance of the regime by the people, and the government did not know what to do with it. But because of this, Wong was able to recognize that the people were not reliant on this way of life that they had previously been bound to, but truly could lead for themselves and take control. The massacre awakened Wong both to the reality that the government was not acting to benefit the people, and that the people were more than capable of acting for

Stephen Mendoza, HIST 2312 Wong, Jan. Red China Blues. Toronto: Doubleday/ Anchor Books, 1996. 395 pages. $11.95 In Jan Wong’s entrancing expose Red China Blues, she details her plight to take part in a system of “harmony and perfection” (12) that was Maoist China. Wong discloses her trials and tribulations over a course of three decades that sees her searching for her roots and her transformation of ideologies that span over two distinctive forms of Communist governments. This tale is so enticing in due part to the events the author encountered that radically changed her very existence and more importantly, her personal quest for self-discovery.

On June 5, 1989, soldiers and tanks from China's People’s Liberation Army physically oppressed the student led protesters. The events surrounding this day are referred to as the Tiananmen Square Protest of 1989, a democracy movement calling for political and social reforms in the Republic of China. The deaths that occurred as a consequence of the Tiananmen Square Protest was not the fault of the students, but rather, the disastrous situation of China beforehand, the common belief that demonstrations would succeed, and the government’s obstinate decisions.

In George Orwell’s novel, 1984, O’Brien drills the idea into Winston’s mind that reality is only truly present in the human mind. The Chinese government tries to establish this within the media, the internet, and the people of China. William Lutz’s essay, “No One Died in Tiananmen Square” reflects Orwell’s 1984 and the thoughts of the Party, such as re-education, and reality control.

Bob Fu conveys clearly the inexorable control that Communist leaders in China have over their people. For example, after Fu and his friends participated in the Tiananmen Square protests, Fu was coerced, day in day out, to write a confession of his purported misdeeds against China and her people as a “counterrevolutionary” (79-82, 85, 87).

As many other countries around the world China has its long history of a struggle for equality and prosperity against tyrants and dictatorships. The establishment of People’s Republic of China in 1949 seemed to have put an end to that struggle for a better life. “The Chinese people have stood up!” declared Mao Tse-tung, the chairman of China’s Communist Party (CPP) – a leading political force in the country for the time. The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie and the national-capitalists. The four classes were to be led buy the CPP, as the leader of the working class.

On April 27, 1989, hundreds of Chinese protestors took a stand against the oppressive and corrupt government to fight for reform and democracy by occupying Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The protests were preceded by a memorial for Hu Yaobang, a Communist leader unpopular amongst Party members for his liberal ideas and lack of enthusiasm for Marxism and Maoism. Marxism is the political theories of Karl Marx which became the basis of Communism and the inspiration for Mao Zedong to create Maoism. Approximately 100,000 students had traveled to Tiananmen Square for Hu Yaobang’s memorial. Following the memorial, students presented a petition to meet with Premier Li Peng which the government refused. This led to a boycott of universities but also led to more demand for democracy. Catalyzing the protests was the unfair treatment of the Chinese people at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. Along with students, civil servants, scholars and laborers joined the protests, risking their lives, jobs and reputations. By June of 1989, negotiations were in place to end the protests, now amounting to over a million people and for democratic reform. Mao Zedong had ordered troops

Though termed the Tiananmen Square Massacre, this incident actually took place throughout China. What started out as a peaceful protest calling for political and economic reforms, soon turned to bloodshed. (Hu 2015)This greatly impacted China's international relationships. Contact between China and Western nations declined, official visits were suspended. Western powers imposed arms embargoes and economic sanctions, preventing the sale of military equipment, and approval of loans. (The National Bureau of Asian Research) Understanding the causes of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and its effects on China’s international relationships, aids in better understanding the nuances of this infamous incident.

As in many preset-day governments, and the governments depicted in the books, China considerably restricts its citizen’s rights to speech and the press. In Legend, the people must be careful of what they say, as it could bring them serious consequences. For example, after Day is executed according the government, talk of him living spreads extremely quickly but only in the shadows, as it was dangerous if the government overheard; the person could be locked up or even worse. Earlier, when June spread news about the Arcadia bank, she sent out scouts, one per sector, to talk about giving Day plague medicine if he comes to the ten-second place. The spreading of this news shows how easy it is for the government to purposefully spread news, not simply restricting speech but surreptitiously and indirectly forcing it taking advantage of the people 's interest

Jean-Philippe Béja argues this idea in examining the aftermath of the "Tiananmen Square Incident" in 1989, during which the People’s Liberation Army violently ended the protests of thousands of Chinese students in Beijing, injuring or killing between hundreds and thousands, and arresting close to 10,000 people after the fact. Béja claims that, because, despite the Chinese Communist Party's strong pressure for silence, Chinese Citizens continue to express their protests of government activity, now in less obvious ways, such as petitioning for human rights and democratization, the violent demonstration of political repression in 1989 had little to no effect on the expression of the Chinese

With thousands left wounded, a seemingly countless number of citizens reported dead, and a country left with a reputation in jeopardy. All of these were the consequences of a shocking and devastating event which happened on the 4th of June 1989, the Tiananmen Square massacre. Overtime this has been viewed as a major turning point in Chinese history. It catalyzed movements for generations across the world.

After the death of Zhou Enlai in 1976, major demonstrations took place in Beijing where protestors were calling for the end to oppressive policies of the Cultural Revolution; in December 1986, student demonstrations escalated into nation-wide movements protesting the absence of democratic reforms (Teiwes and Sun 2004, 212). In a similar sense, in 1989, Hu’s death gave the demonstrators another reason to comemorate his death and again call for democratic reforms. In addition, a number of participants in the Democracy Wall movement of 1978 and 1976 demonstration in Tiananmen Square were university faculty members in 1989, and many of them, most notably Feng Lizhi, played a role in framing the issues publicly and signaling students to participate in the movement against corrupt governments (Mason and Clements 2002, 173). Andrew Nathans (1990) argued that by 1989, what had started as congeries of small, isolated, clandestine groups, had grown step by step - through the Tiananmen Square Incident of 1976, the Democracy Wall movement of 1978-79 etc.- into a national force in 1989, that had the participation or sympathy of almost all residents in China against the Chinese government

Tiananmen Square, 1989 The 20th century was marked by many wars and rebellious events with the millions of human victims among solders and civilians; nevertheless, political leaders do not change their tactics. The issue of the armaments race is on the agenda in the 21st century, and there are still wars

The Shanghai (Xinjiang) Riots and Tiananmen Square Massacre were a direct result from government corruption. The Shanghai (Xinjiang) riots developed around 1994. It began with about 10,000 “incidents” with 730,000 participants, it grew to 74,000 “incidents” with 3.8 million participants. There have been many casualties or as referred to by the government “incidents” by these riots, in 2000, there were 5,500 and in 2003 there were 58,000. These riots are due to overworked textile workers striking, villagers trying to keep their land from being taking over, but mostly because of poor victims of the transition to a market economy. This was directly a cause of government corruption due to unequal distribution of wealth and police abuse. A rioter stated “people can see who corrupt the government is while they barely have enough to eat.” However, this problem originated before those riots occurred. 5 years before that happened; a more famous incident took place, the Tiananmen Square Massacre. July 4th, 1989, thousands of students gathered outside Tiananmen Square to protest for a more democratic government. Chinese government sent officials

Deng Xiaoping has been the individual with the most impact on China since the 1970’s. Along with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he is looked at as one of the key figures in evolution of communism in China . Deng Xiaoping will be remembered as a national hero, but this was not always the case. The real story of Deng includes the fact that, on more than one occasion, his peers ostracized him. During his lifetime he has been a part of the many changes in China throughout the twentieth century. He was by Mao Zedong’s side through all of the struggles of the Chinese Communist Party; battling with Chiang Kai-shek and the Guomindang over