Culture and Politics in China

An Anatomy of Tiananmen Square

Peter Li, Majorie H. Li, Steven Mark

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351524285
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

As the world watched the crumbling away of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the pro-democracy movement in China was dealt a severe blow in June of 1989. Also referred to as the June 4th Incident, the Tiananmen Square protest included students, intellectuals, and workers demanding democratic reforms and social change. To break up the escalating protest armed soldiers stormed the square killing close to two hundred demonstrators and injuring thousands more. Culture and Politics in China explores the events, trends, and tendencies that led to the student demonstrations.

This volume objectively presents a wide range of information permitting readers a comprehensive understanding of the circumstances that culminated on the events of June 4, 1989. Documents include eyewitness accounts by student leaders Chai Ling and Wu'er Kaixi, the speeches of Deng Xiaoping and Yang Shangkun justifying the use of force, analysis of the events by the Marxist theorist Su Shaozhi, the writings of young intellectuals Yan Jiaqi, Liu Xiaobo, and others. Selections include essays on the May Fourth Movement of 1919 and the television documentary, the "Yellow River Elegy" which question the Chinese cultural tradition.

Leading political scientists contribute to this volume. Lee presents an analysis of the role of Deng Xiaoping in the events at Tiananmen Square, and his views on the Chinese Communist party-state and the pro-democracy movement King Tsao, who was at the square, views the demonstrations as a form of civil disobedience and dissent against the party-state. He gives an eyewitness account and a contextual analysis of some of the events and underlying themes. Steven Mark, a journalist, presents an analysis of the various roles of both the Chinese and Western press, beginning with their role in shaping public opinion before the demonstrations and continuing as the media scrambled to cover China's biggest news story since the communist takeover in 1949. Those who

Part I

Voices from the Square

The Voices of Youth

A Battle of Love and Hate

A Peiititon to Li Peng Following the Funeral Service for.Hu Yaohang

A Tide of Democracy

The Hunger Strikers’ Statement

The People’s Decree

How Naive We Were

A Battle of Love and Hate

Chai Ling (Commander-in -chief of the Tiananmen Square Command Center)

[The powerful combination of emotion and idealism that inspired the 1989 student movement is evoked in this report of the movement’s final hours. In this moving account given just days after the 3-4 June attack, student leader Chai Ling, a twenty-three-year-old psychology major at Beijing University, vividly portrays not only the students’ actions but their thoughts as the onslaught unfolded before them. What is particularly revealing is her description of the transformation of the students’ attitude that occurred as it became more and more apparent that the soldiers and tanks were bearing down on Tiananmen Square. Rather than thinking of saving their lives, the students briefly adopted a confrontational attitude, then assumed a sacrificial, posture, aware that martyrdom would carry special significance with the people. It was only --when the situation became truly hopeless that they decided to flee; for many of them, this decision apparently came too late.

While appearing on the verge of breakdown at times, Chai only rarely directs an outburst against specific members of the Communist leadership and is cautious about estimating the number of casualties. She does not view the struggle so much as an ideological or political conflict but rather as “a battle of love and hate.” This characterization provides some insight into why the students, despite their rage, decided that their only true weapon could be peaceful resistance.]

The Troops Invade

Today is 8 June 1989. The time is 4:00 P.M. I am Chai Ling, commandcrdn-chief of the garrison that was guarding Tiananmen Square. 1 am still alive. With regard to all that happened at Tiananmen Square from 2 to 4 June, I think that I am the most qualified to comment upon it. I have a responsibility to report, the truth to the world, to every compatriot, and to every citizen of China.

On the night of 2 June, at around 10:00 P.M., our very first indication of what was to come occurred when a police vehicle struck four innocent bystanders, instantly killing three of diem. Immediately thereafter came another ominous sign when a group of soldiers arrived. [But] they deliberately surrendered, leaving behind tmckload upon trackload of guns, military uniforms, and other equipment, abandoning them to the citizens, who had blockaded the military vehicles, and our fellow students. As far as these events are concerned, the students were very cautious. We immediately gathered these weapons together, and gave them to public security officials [police]. We have a receipt to prove it.

Our third sign came that afternoon. On 3 June, at 2:00 or 3:00 P.M. at Liubukou and Xinhuamen, many of the troops went into action, beating up the students and the citizens of Beijing. At this point, some of the students stood up on vehicles and used megaphones to call out to them: “The People’s Army loves the people; the People’s Army doesn’t fight the people!” One student had just made this appeal when a soldier climbed up, kicked him in the stomach, and said “Your mother! That’s who loves you!” then clubbed him on the head. The student fell to the ground.

From that point on.... Let me take a moment and tell you about our position. I was the commanderdn-chief. At the time, there was a broadcast station on the Square. This station was called the Hunger Strikers’ Broadcasting Station. I stood fast by that post and directed the movement of the students from there. Of course, other students were also at our command post, like Li Lu and Feng Congde. We were constantly receiving emergency bulletins from everywhere about students and city residents being beaten and killed.

From about 8 or 9 until 10 that night, the situation worsened. News of people being killed were reported to us at least ten times. At 7:00 or 8:00 P.M., our command center held a press conference. We told all that we knew to the foreign and Chinese journalists. However, there were very few foreign reporters because, it was rumored, the hotels where they were staying were under surveillance by the military and their rooms were being searched. There were only one or two foreign reporters at the Square, that day.

Our command post issued a declaration to which we all pledged: to fight against Li Peng’s illegitimate government. At precisely 9:00 P.M., all of us at Tiananmen Square stood up, raised our right hands, and took an oath:

For the advancement of democracy in our country, for the development and prosperity of our country, to protect the nation against a small group of conspirators, to preverá 1 billion citizens from a reign of terror, I pledge my young life to the defense of Tiananmen Square and the republic. I may lose my head, my blood may flow, but the People’s Square shall not be lost. We are willing to fight to the very end of our young lives, until the very last person.

At 10:00 P.M. sharp, the Democracy University was founded at the Square. Deputy commander Zhang Boli was installed as president. The establishment of a Democracy University received warmhearted support from all quarters [on the Square]. At this time, the command post was receiving emergency reports from various sources. The situation was very tense. At the northern section of the Square, our founding of the Democracy University was receiving thunderous applause. The University was established near the statue of the Goddess of Democracy. However, on the eastern and western sides of Changan Boulevard, blood was flowing like a river. The butchers, the soldiers of the Twenty-seventh Army, pointed tanks, submachine guns, and bayonets—the effect of the tear gas already had worn off -at those people who dared to yell out even one slogan. Those who dared to throw one brick were chased down by machine gun-bearing troops. All the bodies on Changan. Boulevard were bloodstained on the chest [where they were shot]. Our fellow students came running toward headquarters, their hands, their bodies, their arms soaked with blood—the last drop of their comrades’ blood. Furious and outraged, they embraced their dead classmates and nursed the wounded.

The Students’ Stand: Peace

After 10:00 P.M., the command center pleaded with, everyone for restraint. Why? Because when our patriotic democratic student movement had begun in April and continued in May as a general democratic movement, our principle, our purpose, was to petition peacefully. The spirit of our struggle had been peaceful. Many students, workers, and residents of Beijing came to our command post and said, “Since things are like this, we should use weapons too.” The male students were also infuriated and wanted to use weapons. The students of our command post told everyone, “We believe in petitioning peacefully. The supreme sacrifice of a peaceful demonstration is self-sacrifice.” Slowly, one by one, we came out of our tents, hand in hand, side by side, singing the “Internationale.” Holding hands, we circled the Monument north, cast, west, and south and, our calmness overcoming our fears, sat down quietly to greet the butchers* knives.

Because we knew that we had entered into a battle between love and hate rather than between military forces, because we all knew that if we used peace and harmony as our highest principle in this democratic patriotic struggle, the final result would be ...

[There was a break in the narrative here, Chai Ling was on the verge of sobs. The “final result,” cf course, was a. reference to death that she was not able to say.]

If our fellow students were to take up sticks, bottles, and other things, weapons that are not really weapons, to go against those with submachine guns and those irrational madmen driving tanks, that would be the greatest tragedy of our whole democratic movement. The students just sat there quietly, waiting to be sacrificed.

At this time, some megaphones rigged up inside the command post shed and some speakers in several nearby sheds were playing the song “Descendants of the Dragon,” The students were singing in harmony with the music, their eyes streaming with tears. They hugged each other, joining hands because each one knew that these were the last few moments of their lives. It was time to sacrifice themselves for democracy.

There was a young student called Wang Li, He was only fifteen and he wrote his final testament I do not recall exactly what he wrote, I only remember that he said something like this: “Sometimes it is very strange, but it’s a pity there is no time.” He said that sometimes, when he saw a little insect crawling and he wanted to stomp on it, that little insect would immediately cease to move [’as if waiting to be killed]. He was only fifteen years old and he was already contemplating the meaning of death.

[Chai Ling could not hold herself back any longer and cried. Then, with difficulty, she continued.]

Our republic! Don’t forget! Don’t forget! These are the children of your struggle!

At about one hour past midnight, the command center had to abandon the broadcast station at the pedestal of the Monument and retreat [up the steps] to the Monument to command the Square, I was c om m an d e r- i n - eh i e f. I and the others in command walked along the four sides of the Monument to check on the condition of the students and to mobilize them for one final stand. ‘The students were just sitting there silently. They said, “We will just sit here peacefully; we in the first row are the most determined. Our classmates said to sit quietly. We don’t care that those in the first row will be killed, we will sit quietly. We won’t move, and we never will kill anyone.”

I made a short speech to everyone. I said:

There is an ancient story. Everybody knows it already. There was an ant colony of about 1.1 billion ants. One day the hill was afire. The ants had to get past the fire if they were going to save the colony. So they clung together to make a ball and rolled through the fire. A few ants burned to death, but a vast number survived. Fellow students on the Square, we already stand on the outermost layer of the people. We know in our hearts that only through sacrifice can we have an effect on the survival of the republic.

Then the students sang the “Internationale,” again and again, our hands clasped tighter and tighter. By this time, four comrades, Hou Dejian, Liu Xiaopo, Zhou Tuo. and another, couldn’t continue. They said “Children, you should not sacrifice yourselves any more.” But each student was very determined, so the four went to negotiate with the military leader, the one supposedly in charge of the troops. They told him, “We will withdraw from the Square, but we hope you will ensure the students’ safety. We will leave in peace.”

The Final Assault

At this time, the command center polled the students for their opinion on abandoning the Square. They agreed to withdraw, so we decided to leave. But just at that moment, those butchers failed to keep their promise. Just as the students were leaving, helmeted soldiers, lugging machine guns, attacked the Monument. They didn’t wait for the command center to tell everybody of the decision to leave. The speakers that we had set up around the memorial were [suddenly] pockmarked like honeycombs [by their machine gun fire]. This was the people’s Monument! A monument to the heroes of the people! They actually opened fire on the Monument.

Most of the other students came down. We could only cry as we left, but the citizens said not to. We told them we would be back, because this was the people’s square, but... but afterwards we knew. There were some students who still had some hope for this government and this army. They thought the army would simply drag everybody away. They were too exhausted to move and stayed in the tents.... The tanks came and crashed them into ground meat. Some people say there were two hundred students or more.... There are some people who said more than four thousand people died on the Square.

[The recording had to be stopped at this point because Chai Ling was sobbing so violently.]

The exact figure I still don’t know but, on the edge of the Square, members of the Workers’ Autonomous Association fought fiercely but all died. There were at least twenty or thirty of them.

I have heard that, as the students were planning to leave the Square, the tanks and troop carriers coated the sheds and the students’ corpses with gasoline and burned them all up. Afterwards, they used water and flushed the Square clean of all evidence. Our democratic movement’s statue, the Goddess of Democracy, was crushed to pieces by die tanks.

Walking arm in arm, we circled Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum. As we retreated from the Square to the south and west, we saw on the south side of the mausoleum a crowd of more than ten thousand helmeted soldiers sitting there. The students yelled “Dogs” and “Fascists.” As we retreated to the west, we saw row upon row of soldiers running toward Tiananmen Square to regroup. The citizens and students, baring their teeth in anger, cursed them: “Fascists,” “Dogs,” “Animals.” The soldiers ignored us, running quickly toward our Square.

In our withdrawal, as we passed through Liubukou, all the members of the command post were in the front row. It was here on 3 June at noon that the first of the bloody battles had taken place. There was rubble everywhere. Even the trash cans were burnt and dented.

From Liubukou we walked to Changan Boulevard. The streets were awash with blood, flowing toward.... Ail that could be seen were burnt out trucks and rubble strewn along the ground. Evidence of the just-finished battle could be seen, but there was not one corpse. Afterwards, we learned that the front rows of this band of fascists had used machine guns and, after they killed the people, the rear guard carried the bodies to buses and pedicabs. Some people hadn’t even died, hadn’t taken their last breath, but were carted away and suffocated to death.

This band of fascists took their sins and buried them in broad daylight, without a shadow, without a trace. With ordy our spirits left, we wanted to return to the Square again for another rally. At this time some soldiers came to dissuade us, saying “Children, don’t you know that they have machine guns inside? Don’t sacrifice yourselves again.” We had no choice but to return through Xidan, back to the western district [where the universities are]. Along the way we saw a mother crying loudly, her child dead. On the roads we saw four bodies that were of the citizens of Beijing. They had been beaten to death, and their bodies were exposed on the street.

We turned north, back toward our university. Every citizen’s eyes were filled with tears. Some said, “I bought government bonds. Was it for them to purchase bullets to slaughter innocent people? To massacre innocent children?”

We were inundated with news from everywhere, some that students had witnessed themselves, some told to them by citizens. This band of executioners was just killing, attacking citizens on both sides of Chang an Boulevard, and shooting rockets. Children, elderly people, all lost their lives in the assault. What crime had they committed? They hadn’t even chanted a slogan!

A friend told me he had been passing through Changan Boulevard at 2:00 A.M., trying to stop the tanks, when he saw a little girl waving her right hand, standing in front of the tanks. The tank ran right over her, turning her into ground meat. A student had his hand around a student when a bullet whizzed by and struck his friend down. And he said “I have just escaped death!”

On our way back, we saw a mother looking for her child. She said that her child was named so and so. “Yesterday he was alive, is he still alive?”

Wives looked for their husbands; teachers looked for their students. A banner was hanging from the government building saying “Support the correct decision of the Party Central Committee.” Our classmates furiously tore it down and burned it. The radio blared out, saying the military had entered Beijing to quell a band of hooligans and to maintain law and order.

I think I am the most qualified person to say that these students were not hooligans. Every conscientious Chinese, put your hand on your heart and think: Young children, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, sitting quietly below the Monument, meeting the butchers’ knives with only our hopes—were they hooligans? If they were, could they sit there so calmly? What level have the fascists sunk to, to lie with a straight face and feel no guilt? Lying before the world. If it could be said that those machine gun-toting soldiers who killed the innocent were beasts and animals, then what of those people on the television screen, those in front of the cameras—what kind of people were they?

As we retreated from the Square hand in hand, walking along Changan Boulevard, a tank came spreading tear gas. It rolled over students, over their legs, their heads—many would never again be whole. Who are the hooligans? Those students in front kept going at the original pace, just as before. If they wore face masks, it was because their throats already were being choked by the tear gas. These students who already had sacrificed so much, what can bring them back to life? Tney are forever lost, forever on Changan Boulevard!

Our fellow students ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I. Voices from the Square
• PART II. Essays on the Student Movement
• Appendices
• Index