Massive street protests have
become common over the past few years from the various color coded rebellions
that led to the down fall of remnant Communist
regimes in Eastern Europe and
the former USSR, the Arab Spring that led to the downfall of
the Egyptian government and
threatened conservative regimes, austerity protests across Europe, a mass student rebellion
in Canada, and on a lesser scale
the big marches and encampments of the Occupy
Movement in this country.
Except were the rebellions seem
somehow to service American foreign
policy interests, the U.S. press shows us almost nothing of this. Yet those of us who are interested in the
world have found ways to watch the power of people taking control of their own
lives via the blog-o-sphere and social media. The images are powerful, but after a while
tend to blend together. We become almost
blasé about yet another million or so people taking to the streets.
The recent events in Turkey, a westernized Islamic country about which American
know little, however, have galvanized our attention. What started out as a modest protest against
taking Taksim Square, the last green
space in the center of Istanbul, for
redevelopment as an upscale shopping mall.
But massive attacks on the demonstrators using what looks like the most
intense and sustained use of tear gas ever
unleashed accompanied by a new wrinkle—tear gas mixed in the spray of powerful
water cannons—and traditional charges by mounted police and cops with truncheons, quickly inspired a popular insurrection.
In four days it has spread from
Istanbul to the capital of Ankara and
to at least 27 major cities in all corners of Turkey. It began with secularized, urban middle class
and students but has quickly grown to include the labor movement which today
announced plans for a general strike, and even to the government’s base of
moderate Islamists. Unlike other movements in the region,
more radical Islamic elements seem isolated and unsure what to do.
Violence has escalated. Thousands upon thousands have been injured by
gas, gas projectiles, beatings, and trampling.
The government acknowledges the arrests of more than 1,700, a figure
that is probably ridiculously low. Much
of the street fighting goes on at night out of the vision of western
media. Use of lethal live fire and heavy
armor has not been confirmed. But
stunning photo shows a literal river of blood washing down an Istanbul street,
stark evidence that atrocities have been committed. Yet the rebellion only grows.
Photos and videos have provided
images of the uprising that stun an move us—an attractive, defiant young woman
in a fashionable red dress, Italian shoes
and shoulder bag standing alone just feet in front of police taking as stream
of gas directly in the face, a section
of street littered from gutter to gutter with thousands of spent gas canisters —most
made in the U.S.A., the fog of gas
boiling nearly to roof lines, young men
emerging from the cloud, a Whirling Dervish
in black and a gas mask dancing defiance.
All bring back memories of other
iconic images from China twenty-four
years ago.
On June 4, 1989 the tanks and
troops of the Chinese People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) swept thousands of demonstrators from Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and adjacent
streets. It was a bloody end to nearly
two months of escalating protests against the leadership of the Communist Party of China and corruption
of government officials.
It began during the most liberal
period country had witnessed since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1948. In
1976 earlier Tiananmen Square protests of disrespect shown by hard line leaders
to the death of popular Premier Zhou Enlai had set off events which
would lead to the ouster of the so-called Gang of Four following the
death of Chairman Mao Zedong. That finally ended the last vestiges of the reign of terror known as the Cultural Revolution which had taken
many lives, sent hundreds of thousands to exile or re-education camps and
virtually destroyed the economy.
The Gang of Four’s leading opponent, Deng Xiaoping was acting premier at the time of the
protests and was exiled for supposedly sponsoring the rebellion. With the Gang in prison and their allies
deposed, the Politburo recalled him to Beijing. Two years latter he had consolidated power to
become China’s de-facto supreme leader while publicly holding secondary
offices.
Deng completed the purge of Cultural Revolution
figures in the Party and gained public support by hailing the Tiananmen
demonstrators as heroes. He loosened
state control of the media and allowed a relatively free press to operate for
the first time ever. Free speech
flourished on campus and in villages, which rewarded Deng with their
loyalty. Most significantly he
instituted broad free market reforms that jumpstarted the moribund
economy.
Yet he had failed to match his economic reforms
with political ones. The Communist Party
remained rigidly in control of all levels of government and the economic boom
was accompanied by widespread corruption among officials.
Even many senior party members, including Party
Chairman Hu Yaobang, supported broadening political reforms. So even as agitation for change picked up
speed, there was an aura of hope. It
came as a shock when Chairman Hu was purged in January 1987 and forced to make
a humiliating public self-criticism
by old guard Politburo members who feared reforms had strayed too far from Maoist orthodoxy and threatened China’s one party
system.
Democracy advocates were taken aback by the development but encouraged that
other allies remained in senior positions.
But when Hu died suddenly of a reported heart attack in April, activists
were outraged that the Party refused to give him an adequate memorial in the
city’s ceremonial heart, Tiananmen Square on which sits the Great Hall of the People with its enormous
portrait of Mao. Nearby is the Zhongnanhai,
the walled in compound which is the
seat of both the Party and Government.
On April
15 relatively small groups of people began to hold mourning gatherings for Hu
at the Monument to the People’s Hero in massive Tiananmen Square while
students at local Universities began to hold campus meetings. On the afternoon
of April 17 the first of several marches of university students to mourning
gatherings outside of the Great Hall of the People began. By late evening a few thousand people were on
the square either at the Monument or in the crowd in front of the Great
Hall. Police arrived and tried to
convince the crowds to leave but did not use force.
Sometime that night discussions among the student
demonstrators resulted in a List of Seven Demands that they wanted the
Party and government to address. The
tone was respectful, and the demands quite moderate requests for reform. On the morning of the 18th one group marched
on the Zhongnanhai complex to present their demands. They were blocked by police and began a
sit-in at the gates. Over the next two
day some officials did emerge to engage in unofficial discussion with the
students and to plead with them to go home.
On the 20th baton wielding police dispersed the
demonstrators from in front of the government complex. All of this was being freely reported by the
as yet uncensored Chinese media. Word of
the clashes only swelled crowds on the Square.
The eve of Hu’s funeral the next day drew more than 100,000 to the
square before authorities blocked access.
Student protestors, with the support of their
faculties, announced strikes as the numerous colleges and universities in the
capital, and strikes spread to other major cities as well. By this time senior leadership of the Party
was getting alarmed, but was still split between sympathetic reformers and an
emerging block of hard-line senior leaders.
The student movement itself was far from unified
and still included many Party members and sympathizers seeking incremental
reform within the system and growing numbers calling for a deeper Democratic
reform and even the abolition of the supreme power of the Party.
Yet demonstrators routinely sang approved
patriotic songs, the International, and
venerating the memory of Mao. Three
young men who defaced the giant Mao poster on the square, in fact, were subdued
by demonstrators and voluntarily turned over to the police.
The movement was also beginning to attract
support from the city’s workers who were less concerned with democratic reforms
than with tempering the hard edges of the market reforms which were causing
rising unemployment and escalating prices.
Despite displays of loyalty the nation’s top
paper, the People’s Daily assailed the movement in a front page
editorial on April 24th signaling a hardening of official attitudes. On May 4th, the 50th anniversary of
anti-western, nationalist student demonstrations that led to the downfall of
the Imperial system, 100,000 marched in Beijing demanding formal talks with the
government on reform. The government
refused to negotiate with anyone but representatives of discredited party led
approved student unions.
Huge rallies of students began on the Square on
May 13th and hundreds of students began hunger strikes until official
negotiations began. Reformist Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in the city on a state visit midmonth
bringing with him hoards of international press, who stepped up their coverage
of the unfolding demonstrations.
On the 18th Premier Li Peng had
a public dialogue with a handful of student leaders which was broadcast. Civility quickly broke down when the students
accused the government of dragging its feet on reform and Li personally of
being insincere in his discussions.
The Party was still divided. For his part Li stressed the need to retain
order. Early morning on the 19th Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, a reformer
believed to be in sympathy with the students, came on the square and addressed
the demonstrators with a bull horn. Many
believed he had promised real negotiations.
But a shadow cabal of senior leaders including Deng Xiaoping and Premier Li Peng had enough and took control of
Party and state apparatus, issuing Martial Law on May 20. The People’s Liberation
Army was ordered to the Square, but was peacefully turned back by
demonstrators.
Party elders realized that local units in Beijing, including senior
officers, were sympathetic to the strikers and unwilling to move against them
with force. The order was publicly
rescinded on the 24th but the hardliners were only regrouping. They declared a May 30th deadline to end the
demonstrations before the hunger strikes could result in any deaths and
generate public sympathy.
In the wake of the embarrassing national TV spectacle, press censorship was
reemployed as demonstrations spread throughout the country. Zhao and other moderates were purged. Meanwhile they scoured the nation for
military units loyal enough to move against the demonstrators.
On May 30th students unveiled a giant Goddess
of Democracy holding a Torch of
Freedom. The Statue, with its more
than passing resemblance to the Statue
of Liberty was the final straw. That
night troops and tanks from PLA units in the provinces arrived on the scene. They were ordered to clear the demonstrators
on June 1.
As word spread Beijing residents, most of them not students flooded into
the streets to block the troops.
Barricades were set up and street fighting, including the use of Molotov cocktails erupted around the
city. Some PLA army crews were reported
dragged from armored personnel carriers, beaten, and killed. Advance units finally reached the Square
early the next morning but had orders to hold fire and offer the demonstrators
there a chance to withdraw. Debate raged
on the square about whether to stay or go.
Students were given a deadline of 6 AM on the 3rd.
Meanwhile fighting continued on adjacent streets. Sometime that morning units began “rolling up
the streets” firing directly into crowds and crushing bicyclists and
pedestrians ahead of them. A BBC
reporter observed troops firing directly into the Square, others reported
seeing gun flashes and hearing fire from that direction. But there were no international film crews or
photographers on the Square itself.
Students took refuge in or behind rows of busses, but were pulled out and
beaten or shot. Some students were assaulted
and shot as they tried to leave the square.
Meanwhile a last group held out near the Hall of the People. Accounts vary as to their fate. Reports of Spanish news film crewof about 5000 people being escorted
peacefully out of the square have never been verified by any footage.
The Chinese government itself claims that the Square was taken peacefully,
although it acknowledged casualties on the surrounding streets.
CBS newsman Richard
Roth reported being driven across the square shortly after dawn in a PLA
vehicle and seeing no bodies, no ambulances, no blood or any evidence a battle
had occurred on the square. Others maintain
that there was a final battle but that clean-up crews rapidly descended on the
Square.
Final estimates of casualties in the whole operation vary greatly. The
Chinese government claim of 241 dead, including soldiers and 7,000 wounded is
clearly nonsense. Soviet intelligence
reported 10,000 dead, both civilian and military. Although some soldiers were killed by mobs or
burnt up in their vehicles, most were killed and wounded in their own wild
cross fire.
Chinese Red Cross reported officially that 2,600 died before
their report was censored. Later a Red
Cross official privately said that the number was closer to 5,000 dead and
30,000 injured. Hospitals were
overflowing before authorities closed them to demonstrators. Many avoided them after reports of patients
being taken away. There were undoubtedly
many avoidable deaths due to untreated injuries over the next weeks.
Reports also are in conflict about how many people were subsequently
detained and how many might have been executed.
The most iconic image of the Tiananmen events actually occurred on June 5
as a column of tanks was trying to leave the Square. Western television cameras caught one young
man in a white shirt blocking the column by standing directly in front of
it. He defied the tank, even climbing
on board to talk to the crew, before he was finally led away. He was never positively identified and rumors
swirl as to his fate—did he escape into a life of hiding, or, more likely, was
he arrested and executed?
In subsequent years China has become the most vigorous economy in the world
and an acknowledged super power. It has polished its international reputation
with the Olympics and a World’s
Fair. But the government and Party
remain in rigid control and brook no public dissent.
This week Chinese officials announced that Jiang Yaqun, now 73 years old and suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease,
was finally released after 24 years in prison.
He was reputedly the last surviving detainee of the uprising.
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