Twenty years have passed since that lone man stood in front of a column of tanks and gave the world an image that has come to represent the power of peace over might. Twenty years since the protests in China's Tiananmen Square gathered the world's attention and raised the question of who is China and what is her place on the new world stage?
It has been twenty years and yet many of the questions raised then are still largely unanswered. The goal of this week's topic is to shed a brief glow of light on what happened twenty years ago and why that event remains relevant in today's world.
Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China was the scene of one of the more remarkable events in human history for a period of seven weeks in the spring of 1989. Responding to the death of a beloved, forward thinking Chinese official named Hu Yaobang, Chinese university students gathered in the square to mourn his passing in April, 1989. This initial assembly quickly evolved into a protest of the authoritarian rule of the Chinese government and the public square was soon populated by students from across Beijing, then from across China and then by people representing all walks of Chinese culture. The protest was not well organized but the general calling was for for an end to the repressive regime and a new direction for China which would embrace the benefits of democracy and transparent government.
As April turned to May the protest began to generate momentum. Coming on the heels of falling communist governments in eastern Europe the Chinese student uprising seemed like the next domino scheduled to fall but it was not until the world media arrived in Beijing to cover the state visit of Mikhail Gorbachev in mid May that the movement attracted the attention of the rest of the world. It quickly became apparent that the real story in Beijing was happening in Tiananmen Square.
By mid May the students had submitted a list of seven demands that they wished the government to respond to and to further their cause they entered into a hunger strike which aligned them completely with the general population. This hunger strike, performed by as many as one thousand students ignited a Chinese population and what had begun as a mourning tribute to a reform minded official was now gaining momentum as a national revolution touching all levels of Chinese society. This growth and and the unplanned spontaneity of the assembly caused the leadership to fragment. There was no formal hierarchy or consolidated organization as the protest grew to include not only students but members of every social and economic class as well. The world media, in China to cover the soviet visit, were soon reporting the amazing scene inside Tiananmen Square. A scene that was rapidly growing and one which gave all the appearances as the birth of an earth shattering democratic revolution. People came from across China choking the rail and bus stations to be a part of the tremendous social wave.
The Chinese government now recognized the protests were a legitimate threat to their existence and moved to stop it. Sending vast numbers of military troops into the city with the intention of forcefully removing the protesters they were alarmed when the population of Beijing flooded the streets and like human concrete swarmed around the military vehicles and blocked the advance in its tracks. Entire columns were stuck in the streets for days as the people united to halt the government troops. The scales were tipping away from the government and the situation was growing desperate.
The Chinese government withdrew the troops and the people applauded, believing a peaceful change was imminent. The government had other ideas and on the evening of June 3, 1989 they reentered the city under the cloak of darkness and surprise. The mission was the same. Remove the protesters from the square and end the uprising. The details of this night are murky at best but it seems the troops met resistance at nearly every street corner as they advanced on the square. Civilians tried in vain to slow the assault as they blockaded the intersections leading to the square with buses, cars and fires. Small sporadic fire fights erupted at these blockades and the Chinese troops fired on the civilians. This is where the majority of the casualties occurred, in the streets leading to the square. It is not known how many casualties the government troops did inflict but what is known is that in the early morning hours of June 4, 1989 the troops entered the square and with the use of tanks and guns cleared the square. Estimates of the casualties range from the official Chinese tally of 241 dead to international estimates in the thousands.
It is probably fair to say that on this evening the Chinese government killed 2600 of its own people to suppress the protest and reestablish its power. As the sun rose on June 4, 1989 two things were certain; the protest was over and the communists were still in power.
That was twenty years ago. A small blip on the history of humanity. Largely forgotten and mostly unnoticed but the events of those seven weeks have had a resounding effect on not only China but on the world as well. The most telling of these effects has been China's rise on the global stage and the weight it is able to throw in the world economy. In the resulting aftermath of the Tiananmen Square Uprising China no longer funds public education past the primary level unless the student has aced the entrance exams. I suppose the government felt that by reducing the number of students they would effectively eliminate the number of student protests. This has meant the rural populations have been forced to move to the urban centers to find work in order to pay for the continuing education of their children. When they arrived in the urban areas they were met by the newly empowered heads of Chinese industry who put them to work in the manufacturing facilities that are the corner stone of the new Chinese economy.
China knew it had to change but the government wanted to change on its terms. The communists have maintained control of the political stage while granting new freedoms to the industrialists. Both rely on each other and both exist at the expense of the conquered public. Made in China is stamped on the packaging of nearly everything we buy these days. It may as well say Made in China at the expense of the Casualties of Tiananmen Square.
