TIANANMEN SQUARE PROTESTS & HUNGER STRIKES, 1989

Tiananmen Square Protests, 1989

Today, The Grandma has gone to the library to search more information about an event that changed Chinese history, the Tiananmen Square protests, the student hunger strikes that began on a day like today in 1989 and finished in a massacre.

A protest is an expression of bearing witness on behalf of an express cause by words or actions with regard to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations. Protesters may organize a protest as a way of publicly making their opinions heard in an attempt to influence public opinion or government policy, or they may undertake direct action in an attempt to directly enact desired changes themselves. Where protests are part of a systematic and peaceful nonviolent campaign to achieve a particular objective, and involve the use of pressure as well as persuasion, they go beyond mere protest and may be better described as cases of civil resistance or nonviolent resistance.

Nonviolent resistance is the best way to fight against a dictatorial government and we have some examples nowadays that demonstrate how civil resistance and disobedience can end with dictatorships.

The Tiananmen Square protests, commonly known in mainland China as the June Fourth Incident were student-led demonstrations in Beijing in mid-1989. More broadly, it refers to the popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests during that period, sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement. The protests were forcibly suppressed after the government declared martial law and sent in the military to occupy central parts of Beijing. In what became known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops with assault rifles and tanks fired at the demonstrators trying to block the military's advance towards Tiananmen Square. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to thousands.

Set off by the death of pro-reform Communist leader Hu Yaobang in April 1989, amid the backdrop of rapid economic development and social changes in post-Mao China, the protests reflected anxieties about the country's future in the popular consciousness and among the political elite. The reforms of the 1980s had led to a nascent market economy which benefited some people but seriously disaffected others, and the one-party political system also faced a challenge of legitimacy. Common grievances at the time included inflation, corruption, limited preparedness of graduates for the new economy, and restrictions on political participation.

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

The students called for democracy, greater accountability, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech, although they were highly disorganized and their goals varied. At the height of the protests, about 1 million people assembled in the Square.

As the protests developed, the authorities responded with both conciliatory and hardline tactics, exposing deep divisions within the party leadership. By May, a student-led hunger strike galvanized support for the demonstrators around the country, and the protests spread to some 400 cities. Ultimately, China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and other Communist Party elders believed the protests to be a political threat and resolved to use force.

The State Council declared martial law on May 20 and mobilized as many as 300,000 troops to Beijing. The troops advanced into central parts of Beijing on the city's major thoroughfares in the early morning hours of June 4, killing both demonstrators and bystanders in the process.

The international community, human rights organizations, and political analysts condemned the Chinese government for the massacre. Western countries imposed arms embargoes on China.

More information: The Atlantic

The Chinese government made widespread arrests of protesters and their supporters, suppressed other protests around China, expelled foreign journalists, strictly controlled coverage of the events in the domestic press, strengthened the police and internal security forces, and demoted or purged officials it deemed sympathetic to the protests. More broadly, the suppression temporarily halted the policies of liberalization in the 1980s. Considered a watershed event, the protests also set the limits on political expression in China well into the 21st century. Its memory is widely associated with questioning the legitimacy of Communist Party rule and remains one of the most sensitive and most widely censored topics in China.

The Cultural Revolution ended with chairman Mao Zedong's death in 1976. The movement, spearheaded by Mao, caused severe damage to the country's originally diverse economic and social fabric. The country was mired in poverty as economic production slowed or came to a halt. Political ideology was paramount in the lives of ordinary people as well as the inner workings of the Communist Party itself.

Tiananmen Square, 1989

At the Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee in December 1978, Deng Xiaoping emerged as China's de facto leader. Deng launched a comprehensive program to reform the Chinese economy. Within several years, the country's direction entirely changed. The focus on ideological purity was replaced by a full-on drive to achieve material prosperity. To run his reform agenda, Deng promoted his allies to top government and party posts. Hu Yaobang became General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1982, while Zhao Ziyang was named Premier, the head of government, in September 1980.

In mid-1986, astrophysics professor Fang Lizhi returned from a position at Princeton University and began a personal tour around universities in China; speaking about liberty, human rights, and separation of powers. 

Fang was part of a wider undercurrent within the elite intellectual community that thought China's poverty and underdevelopment, and the disaster of the Cultural Revolution, were a direct result of the authoritarian political system and the rigid command economy. The view that political reform was the only answer to China's on-going problems gained widespread appeal among students, as Fang's recorded speeches became widely circulated all over the country.

In response, Deng Xiaoping warned that Fang was blindly worshipping Western lifestyles, capitalism, and multi-party systems, while undermining China's socialist ideology, traditional values, and the party's leadership.

More information: CNN

Inspired by Fang and other people-power movements around the world, in December 1986, student demonstrators staged protests against the slow pace of reform. The issues were wide-ranging, and included demands for economic liberalization, democracy, and rule of law. While the protests were initially contained in Hefei, where Fang lived, they quickly spread to Shanghai, Beijing and other major cities. This alarmed the central leadership, who accused the students of instigating Cultural Revolution-style turmoil.

General secretary Hu Yaobang was blamed for taking a soft attitude and mishandling the protests, thus undermining social stability. He was denounced thoroughly by conservatives. Hu was forced to resign as general secretary on 16 January 1987. Then the party began the Anti-bourgeois liberalization Campaign, taking aim at Hu, political liberalization and Western-inspired ideas in general. The Campaign stopped student protests and tightened the political environment, but Hu remained popular among progressives in the party, intellectuals, and students.

Tiananmen Square, 1989

When Hu Yaobang suddenly died of a heart attack on 15 April 1989, students reacted strongly, most of them believing that his death was related to his forced resignation. Hu's death provided the initial impetus for students to gather in large numbers. 

In university campuses, many posters appeared eulogizing Hu, calling for a revival of Hu's legacy. Within days, most posters were writing about broader political issues, such as freedom of the press, democracy, and corruption.

The first of two student hunger strikes of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 began on May 13, 1989, in Beijing.

The students said that they were willing to risk their lives to gain the government's attention. They believed that because plans were in place for the grand welcoming of Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union, on May 15, at Tiananmen Square, the government would respond. Although the students gained a dialogue session with the government on May 14, no rewards materialized. The Chinese Communist Party did not heed the students' demands and moved the welcome ceremony to the airport.

More information: BBC

On May 15, students officially created the Hunger Strike Committee to organize operations within the square. By May 16, there were 3,100 hunger strikers. Ambulances and medical help were readily available for the fainting students at the square. With local and foreign media being allowed to report on the student protests, the images of students chanting and fainting from the hunger strike activities created striking images for the world. Pictures of students willing to forgo their lives for their country were captured by media outlets and transmitted around the world, which led to global sympathy for the students' cause.

Citywide support for the students led to mass protests between May 16 and May 18, which involved people from all works of life including workers, youth, the elderly, and many others. Over one million people took part of the citywide protests in support of the students.

The hunger strike ended on May 19 before the declaration of martial law.

The idea of a hunger strike emerged early on in the movement and came from numerous different individuals. According to student leader Chai Ling, she first heard of the idea in one of her classes from Zhang Boli, a visiting writer at Peking University. Zhang said that he was inspired by Gandhi.

In addition, she was told a story by two men from the national security force on April 27 about a single hunger striker, who was easily chased away on April 19. Some student leaders heard about the idea as early as April 23 from Hong Kong students, who proposed a hunger strike.

After the May Fourth protests of 1989, the protests lost momentum and students were beginning to return to class. Student leaders were looking for a new plan to gain the government's attention for dialogue.

Two different stories exist about how the hunger strike was initiated. The first was at lunch between Wang Dan, Wu'er Kaixi, Ma Shaofang, Cheng Zhen, and two others on May 11.

According to Wu'er Kaixi, he is the one who brought up the idea, at the meal. Among them, only Ma Shaofang and Cheng Zhen had both read Gandhi's biography. Chai Ling has a different story: She saw a debate at Peking University as to whether to stage a hunger strike.

More information: Independent

To gain involvement from students for the hunger strikes, student leaders like Wang Dan went around asking individuals to sign up. This is how Chai Ling joined. Student leaders, who wanted to be part of the strike could only do so independently because the Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation did not support the hunger strike.

By the night before the strike began, 40 individuals had signed up. Chai Ling gave an emotional speech at Peking University to appeal for involvement. This speech became the basis of the Declaration of a Hunger Strike, which contained the Hunger Strike Manifesto. By the time students entered the square to begin the strike, there were 800 people participating.

The formation of the Hunger Strike Committee occurred on May 15. The committee was led by Chai Ling. Her involvement made her a prominent figure for the rest of the movement. Other student leaders including Li Lu and Pu Zhiqiang also rose to prominence because of their involvement. The media's focus on the hunger strike saw the rise of popularity and fame among the student leaders.

The hunger strike contributed to making the mass protests noticeable by global media. Moreover, it aroused sympathy for the students' cause.

More information: Quartz Membership

In 1989, I was on Tiananmen Square with the students,

living in their makeshift tents and joining their jubilant singing 

of the Internationale. In the two decades since, each time that

I have gone back, visions from those days seem to return

with increasing persistence.

Ma Jian