Was the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre a Failure of Civil Disobedience?

The Tiananmen Square Massacre greatly impacted the way the rest of the world viewed the Chinese government. Imagine not having the freedom of speech that we do today, or living in a country that kills the innocent. In 1989, college students exercised their right to freedom of speech while protesting their communist leaders, and the leaders of Communist China put the demonstration down with military force resulting in possibly thousands killed. But, throughout the last 25 years China has grown and developed into a much different country than it was during the late 1980’s. Granted, the country still has a long way to go before it resembles the democracy present in the United States today, but it seems to be headed in the right direction.

The cultural revolution is a strange period in Chinese history laced with intense struggle and anguish. The cultural revolution mobilized the all of society to compete for all opposing factions that they belonged to (Ong, 2016). Mao mobilized the young people of society during a background of political turmoil, which helped Mao to mobilize the students in order to enforce his political legitimacy and ideas (Ong, 2016). Mao’s charismatic authority created his personality cult and most defiantly leant a helping hand in mobilizing the red guard movement (Ong, 2016) (Weber, 1946) (Andreas, 2007). No matter which faction of the red guard they belonged to, they all mobilized against their common enemy; the better off, upper class. (Ong, 2016). Multiple ideologies within the youth led red guard movement explain why the movement gained momentum and became incredibly powerful (Walder, 2009).

Originally, Liang’s “parents were deeply involved in all the excitement of working to transform China into a great Socialist country” (4). Over a serious of unfortunate events, though, he became the child of a “Rightist’s cap” mother and a “Reactionary Capitalist stinking intellectuals” father (9, 51). Impacted by the shattering of his family and horrific bloodshed created by fighting, Liang Heng began to question the Cultural Revolution. He claimed that his “family had scarified so much… but it had given [them] nothing in return” (148). Liang Heng presents his shift in ideology to demonstrate that most Chinese were no longer in support of a Communist nation. His “troubles were common enough and anyone could see there was a discrepancy between the glorious words of the newspapers and [their] painful reality (232). Even Liang Heng’s father, after many years of devotion, found that he could no longer defend the Party’s policies after he experienced the ill-treatment of the peasants in the country

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.

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.

June fourth, 1989. A day like many at that time in Beijing, China, where university students were protesting for democracy in Tiananmen Square. But on that day, the Chinese government couldn’t tolerate it any longer. The army and the police were sent out to clear the students from the square, using as much force as they wanted. Estimates of the death count vary from the hundreds to the thousands, but no one knows for sure. Even today, there is still one prisoner left over from the massacre.

The Tiananmen Square protests were characterised by student led demonstrations, which were a greater part of a question being asked at that time regarding how far China should reform. The protests began as a result of the death a Hu Yaobang, a Communist party general, who advocated for greater political and economic reform (Naughton, 2007). This had both short term and longer-term consequences. In the immediate, the government responded by declaring martial law and opening fire on civilians. However, in the longer term this would influence a view among CCP leadership that a strong propaganda system was necessary to ensure the parties political control. The time period was crucial for two reasons. First, it negatively impacted China’s

Protesters in Beijing China, 1989, took a stand against a communist government in many protest in Tiananmen Square in the spring and summer months. College students in the area called for the change in early mourning for the death of Hu Yaobang, who died on April 15th, 1989, who wanted to help make more democratic changes to the government of China. Soon more people joined in, leading to the peak of 1.2 million people who came not only for protest but to see General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, plead for everyone to go home and end the hunger strikes so people can get through the area and have peace. But, on May 19th, Martial Law is declared by Premier Li Peng of the communist Chinese government, and not too long after

Hu Yaobang was a high ranking official in the Chinese Communist Party and was also the key figure that had compelled the university students to protest at Tiananmen Square. Under Deng’s direction, Yaobang had pursued several reforms economically and politically which has caused rivalry between him and a number of powerful Party elders. In brief, the Party elders opposed Yaobang’s reform of free market and his ideas of bourgeois liberalization. On the contrary, the students were interested in the system and had been protesting for bourgeois liberalization that the government had constantly declined to give them after Yaobang’s death on September 11, 1989. Yaobang’s reforms had also caused the citizens to experience the Western popular culture which had exposed them to the foreign idea and living standards that perked the interest of

The Communist fervor that gripped mainland China under Mao Zedong’s rule had lasting effects on the economy and culture. In particular, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution devastated rural and peasant populations, leading to fatal consequences for a large portion of the chinese demographic. The Great Leap Forward was an attempt at socializing the chinese economy almost ten years after the People's Republic of China was established in 1949. Property and businesses were stripped from private owners by the government and given to community leaders to run with the help of community members. Unfortunately, revolutionary passion blinded community leaders and the government. The former over reported food production while the latter continued to support a failing economic structure and policy. This lead to the Great Chinese Famine, and a decline in economic productivity and revolutionary zeal. The Great Cultural Revolution was meant to reinvigorate the revolutionary spirit. Launched several years after the failure of the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution targeted the youth. A successful propaganda campaign mobilized groups of mostly disadvantaged youth (red guards) and the working class to purge those antithetical to the movement. Millions were killed in the resulting class warfare which targeted capitalists, rightists, and landlords. The effects of these influential events are still explored in modern chinese cinema many years after their occurrence. An

The first being that there was indeed a feeling of discontent towards the communistic Chinese government even after the violent events of Tiananmen square and the latter being that the Republic after just exhibiting a harsh spurt of oppression was trying to gain back validity by not openly crushing the lone man. During the time of Tiananmen Square it was illegal to photograph or videotape the events. If you were caught you could be prosecuted and your film destroyed. To this day discussion of the events in Tiananmen Square is illegal, “…a long list of search terms… have been censored on Sina Weibo, the country's most popular microblog. Other banned words include "tomorrow," "that year," "special day," and many number combinations that could refer to 4 June 1989, such as 6-4, 64, 63+1, 65-1, and 35...Chinese Communist party authorities, fearing a threat to their legitimacy, forbid open discussion of the so-called "June 4th incident" in the country's

However, the trend of domestic instability continued with the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, in which attempts to remove class differences became catastrophic for the country’s economy, culture, and education. It also led to tremendous political upheaval due to a score of “counter revolutionary” party members and intellectuals being persecuted and tortured by the Red Guards (Wang 29). Mao’s ineffective and often harsh domestic policies left the country in chaos until Deng Xiaoping came into power (Lin 205). China’s turbulent domestic situation also resulted in a 30-year period of isolation, in which there was no foreign economic presence whatsoever (Lin 203).

Surprisingly, China’s new leader, Deng Xiaoping, initiated new economic reforms. He freed the Chinese market and opened it to the west, a strange move coming from a communist party. Such an act raised the public’s hopes for political reforms, in which Wei Jingsheng, a human activist, found it dubious. Nevertheless, the economic reforms triggered a series of protests in 1989--

One of such events that shook the world became the student protest on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, in 1989 which eventually

64 implies the Tiananmen Square Event happened in June 4, 1989. At that day Chinese government gave the order for the army to quell the protest on Tiananmen Square. After more than 20 years this topic is still forbidden in China. The secret is kept so well that most Chinese born after 1989 do not even know its existence.