China, the Nation that Forgot Its Past: Part One, "The Tiananmen Square Democracy Movement"

A Nation that forgets it's past no future)
- Winston Churchill -

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Ah.. China's double standards are hardly surprising anymore, but they seem to worsen with each passing year. They've completely forgotten about their own wrongdoings and the harm they inflict on world peace and order. It's become ingrained in the very fabric of their nation. Today, I'll talk about how foolish the Chinese people are and why China is destined to fail, as evidenced by their own history.

[China had a democratic movement too? "The Tiananmen Square protests"]

Do any of you reading this know the significance of the numbers "8.9.6.4."? These digits represent the date (June 4, 1989) when China's first and last democratic movement, a resistance movement known as the "Tiananmen Square protests," began. The photo below is the most iconic image from these protests.

  China has thoroughly erased the "Tiananmen Square protests" from their history. Regrettably, as a result, most Chinese under 30 living in China today not only don't remember this incident, but aren't even aware it happened at all. One has to wonder if the youth in China today know anything about the "Tiananmen Square democracy movement"...(^_^;)

   Anyway, the incident was triggered by the sudden death on April 15, 1989 of Hu Yaobang, who was then the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Notably, he had been strongly promoting reforms, opening up, and democratization within the Communist Party. Hu Yaobang was pushing for even more aggressive and wide-ranging reforms and opening up of China than Deng Xiaoping, who spearheaded China's modernization.

Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦), who led China's reform and opening-up and was the 7th General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

   "Hu Yaobang" resigned in 1986, taking responsibility for failing to stop student protests. His successor as the 8th General Secretary, Zhao Ziyang, also took a relatively lenient approach with the protesting students. As a result, Zhao faced the same criticism from the Chinese Communist Party as Hu Yaobang and was forced to resign.

   At that time, China was in an era where it had just started sprinting forward with internal reforms and policies of opening up to the outside world, after Deng Xiaoping took the helm of the Chinese ship in 1978. So China was facing problems similar to Russia - the negative effects and maladjustment brought about by a socialist communist country adopting a capitalist economic system - which gave the Chinese Communist Party a major headache. Rampant corruption among lower-level officials and severe inflation led to very poor public sentiment. On top of this, young people who had gotten a taste of democracy began demanding further democratization not just in the economy but in politics as well.

   A prime example is the "Democracy Wall Movement" (Nov 1978 ~ Dec 1979), where thousands posted grievances about China's political and social issues on a long brick wall in Beijing's municipal district, similar to today's bulletin boards. For the Chinese Communist Party, this was an issue they could neither accept nor forgive under any circumstances.

Citizens of Beijing, China, reading posters during the "Democracy Wall Movement" in Beijing, China, November 1978 - December 1979

At that time, discontent and voices were growing louder within the Chinese Communist Party, especially among the "hardliners" who believed that the youth-led forces calling for democratization should be strongly suppressed. It was during this complex and politically sensitive period that Hu Yaobang, the symbol of China's reform and opening up, suddenly passed away.

Immediately after, countless students and citizens began gathering at "Tiananmen Square" to commemorate Hu Yaobang's death. More and more students and citizens who sympathized with the ideals and ideas Hu Yaobang pursued started to assemble, and as their voices grew louder, it eventually evolved into China's first "democracy movement" driven by the voluntary actions of the people.

In addition to the protest's scale growing larger and more intense, it also began to spread from Beijing to various local governments across China. Records show that at the time, there was a fierce debate within the Chinese Communist Party between those who believed the large number of students and citizens gathered in front of Tiananmen Square should be forcefully suppressed with military might, and those who thought they should be persuaded and pacified to disperse the crowd.  (Source:"The Tiananmen Papers" by Andrew J. Nathan, Professor at Columbia University, published in Foreign Affairs, January 2001)

2001/1, Foreign Affairs "The Tiananmen Papers"

  Amid all this, in mid-April, as Hu Yaobang's funeral was coming to an end, the protests began to fizzle out and lose steam. At this point, if the Chinese Communist Party had simply left things alone, the demonstrations might have voluntarily disbanded or faded away. However, history doesn't always unfold the way we want it to.

  Around this time, on April 26th, the "People's Daily," which served as the mouthpiece  of the Chinese Communist Party, published an editorial that delivered a devastating blow. The gist of it was that "the protesters gathered at Tiananmen Square are anti-Communist Party and anti-socialist, part of a premeditated conspiracy by groups aiming to dismantle the system." (This rhetoric is reminiscent of someone who, after declaring martial law, claims they did nothing wrong.) This editorial provoked the students and citizens who were protesting to have their voices heard, and the loosening democracy movement suddenly intensified once again.

  Then, on May 13th of the same year, a major turning point occurred in the "Tiananmen Square democracy movement." The students gathered at Tiananmen Square, demanding to be heard, began a hunger strike.

This is a scene of students on a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square just before the "Tiananmen Square crackdown" in 1989.

Now, it's hard to say whether the students' decision to start a hunger strike in front of Tiananmen Square at this point was impeccable timing or a serious misjudgment. Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union at the time (March 2, 1931 - August 30, 2022), was scheduled to visit China.

China and the Soviet Union, even now, only pretend to be friendly out of necessity; in reality, their relationship is not particularly good. As with any country in the world, it's not easy to find a country that shares a border and maintains a genuinely amicable relationship. Most are either in a state of extreme confrontation or have some level of bickering.

However, when the Soviet General Secretary announced his visit to China, it was a huge event that the Chinese Communist Party could consider a significant diplomatic achievement. As such, the students protesting in Tiananmen Square, bolstered by Gorbachev's visit, intended to strongly assert in front of the foreign press how much China desired to follow the Soviet Union's reforms (perestroika) and openness (glasnost) when Gorbachev visited China. With Gorbachev coming to China, media from all over the world flocked to the country. It seems that the people leading the Tiananmen movement at the time were trying to leverage the power of the press.

The reason why there are still many photos and related materials of the "Tiananmen Square democracy movement" that the Chinese Communist Party so desperately wants to hide is that, at the time, an enormous number of foreign journalists had entered Beijing, China, in line with Gorbachev's visit. Thanks to this, despite the Chinese Communist Party's frantic efforts to erase it, there is an abundance of factual evidence and photographs of the "Tiananmen Square democracy movement."

Well, for these reasons, the "hardliners" (led by Prime Minister Li Peng) within the Chinese Communist Party, who advocated for strong suppression, clashed with the "moderates" (led by Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party's General Secretary at the time) who wanted to persuade the protesters to disperse. At this point, Deng Xiaoping, who was the Communist Party's highest authority and General Secretary, ultimately sided with and empowered the "hardliners."

Despite Zhao Ziyang, representing the moderate faction, repeatedly advising and recommending dispersal, a large number of students had gathered in Tiananmen Square. Suddenly, at 4 a.m. on June 4, 1989, the countless lights surrounding Tiananmen Square were extinguished all at once. Then, 30 minutes later, the lights illuminating the streets came back on, and the students remaining in Tiananmen Square were confronted with none other than tens of thousands of tanks and armored vehicles surrounding them. This tank unit issued a final ultimatum to the students and citizens gathered for the democracy movement to disperse immediately. Naturally, the people didn't budge and held their ground.

And the crackdown began immediately.

Due to China's unique style of information suppression, there is still no accurate data or records on how many people were sacrificed at that time or the exact number of casualties. Leaving aside the number of victims, it's only natural that most young people and students in China today are unaware that such a democracy movement even took place in China, as the "Tiananmen Square democracy movement" has been completely erased from China's modern history. In this respect, one could say that the Chinese Communist Party's erasure of history has been somewhat successful.

According to the estimated data on the casualties at the time, the Soviet Union recorded approximately 300 to 1,000 victims, NATO reported around 7,000, and the New York Times estimated 400 to 800. In the scant records remaining from the Chinese government, there is only a single line stating that 241 people died, including the soldiers who were sent to suppress the protesters, and 7,000 were injured.

6.4 Memorial photo released by the Tiananmen Mothers Association, a group of bereaved families of the victims of the Tiananmen Square Democratization Movement

After this incident, the moderate faction's "Zhao Ziyang," who had tried to persuade the students to disperse until the very end, was ousted from power. He was succeeded as the Communist Party's General Secretary by "Jiang Zemin," who had advocated for strong suppression. After "Deng Xiaoping" passed away, Jiang Zemin rose to become China's supreme leader.

This event sent shockwaves throughout the world regarding China, and economic sanctions were imposed for a certain period. However, unable to let go of their desire for the Chinese market, the United States under "Bill Clinton" began to pursue a policy of reconciliation with China. Eventually, in 2001, with the tacit approval of U.S. President George W. Bush, China was allowed to join the WTO and became the 143rd official member country a month later.

From this point on, China underwent rapid economic development, and the Chinese people also began to forget about their own democratic struggle. It was the result of choosing to abandon their hungry human selves and become well-fed dogs and pigs instead. The Chinese Communist Party took advantage of this and thoroughly, cleanly erased all traces and footprints of the "June 4th Tiananmen Square Democracy Movement" from their modern history.

This is also the reason why China can never progress further. As I will discuss in the next article, among all the countries in the world, China is the only one on this planet Earth that has erased its own history with its own hands. And they've done it not just once, but a staggering three times.

If the June 4th Tiananmen Square Democracy Movement had succeeded, and if the students at that time had seized power and become China's core political force, China would have become the world's preeminent country with unrivaled wealth and power that no one could touch. In that regard, I am praying to the gods of heaven and earth that General Secretary Xi Jinping remains at the core of the Chinese Communist Party and continues to serve for a 5th term, a 7th term. Only then can China be fragmented into 20 or 30 countries.

I believe that the failure of the June 4th Tiananmen Square Democracy Movement was truly a blessing in disguise. Thanks to that, China has been fully confirmed as a discarded nation, isolated from the rest of the world.

Did you find today's story interesting? (^_^;);

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※ 주의사항 ※ 
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