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Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

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   The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the Tiananmen
   Square Massacre, June 4th Incident, or the Political Turmoil between
   Spring and Summer of 1989 by the government of the People's Republic of
   China, were a series of demonstrations led by students, intellectuals
   and labour activists in the People's Republic of China between April
   15, 1989 and June 4, 1989. The demonstrations centred on Tiananmen
   Square in Beijing, but large scale protests also occurred in cities
   throughout China, such as in Shanghai.

   In Beijing, the resulting crackdown on the protestors by the PRC
   government left many civilians dead, the figure ranging from 200–300
   (PRC government figures), to 2,000–3,000 (Chinese student associations
   and Chinese Red Cross), although the PRC government asserts and most
   independent observers agree that these deaths were not in the square
   itself but rather in the streets leading to the square.

   The protestors came from disparate groups, ranging from intellectuals
   who believed the Communist Party of China-led government was too
   corrupt and repressive, to urban workers who believed Chinese economic
   reform had gone too far and that the resulting rampant inflation and
   widespread unemployment was threatening their livelihoods.

   After the protestors defied government calls to disperse, a split
   emerged within the Communist Party of China on how to respond to the
   protestors. Out of the party turmoil, a hardline faction emerged and
   the decision was made to quell the protests, rather than to heed their
   demands.

   On May 20, the government declared martial law and, on the night of
   June 3 and the early morning of June 4, army tanks and infantry were
   sent into Tiananmen Square to crush the protest and disperse the
   protestors. Estimates of civilian deaths vary: 23 ( Communist Party of
   China), 400–800 ( Central Intelligence Agency), 2600 (Chinese Red
   Cross). Injuries are generally held to have numbered from 7,000 to
   10,000. Following the violence, the government conducted widespread
   arrests to suppress the remaining supporters of the movement, banned
   the foreign press and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the
   PRC press. The violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest
   caused widespread international condemnation of the PRC government.

Naming of incident

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   The incident is named after the location of the movement in Tiananmen
   Square, Beijing. Some historians also call it "the Beijing massacre".

   In the Chinese language, the incident is most commonly known as the
   June Fourth Movement ( Simplified Chinese: 六四运动; Traditional Chinese:
   六四運動) or June Fourth Event (Chinese: 六四事件). The former is in conformity
   with the other two great protest actions that occurred on Tiananmen
   Square: the May Fourth Movement of 1919, and the April Fifth Movement
   of 1976. In some contexts, "June Fourth Movement" refers more generally
   to all the student and civil unrest which occurred throughout China, in
   addition to the events in Beijing and specifically Tiananmen Square.

Background

   Since 1978, Deng Xiaoping had led a series of economic and political
   reforms which had led to the gradual implementation of a market economy
   and some political liberalization that relaxed the system set up by Mao
   Zedong. By early 1989, these economic and political reforms had led two
   groups of people to become dissatisfied with the government.

   The first group included students and intellectuals, who believed that
   the reforms had not gone far enough and that China needed to reform its
   political systems, since the economic reforms had only affected farmers
   and factory workers; the incomes of intellectuals lagged far behind
   those who had benefited from reform policies. They were concerned about
   the social and political controls that the Communist Party of China
   still had. In addition, this group saw the political liberalization
   that had been undertaken in the name of glasnost by Mikhail Gorbachev.
   The second group were those, including urban industrial workers, who
   believed that the social and political reforms had gone too far. The
   loosening of economic control had begun to cause inflation and
   unemployment, which threatened their livelihood.
   An anonymous drawing posted in a pedestrian walkway underneath Chang An
   Avenue caricatures Deng Xiaoping (seated behind the lectern) as an old
   Chinese emperor.
   Enlarge
   An anonymous drawing posted in a pedestrian walkway underneath Chang An
   Avenue caricatures Deng Xiaoping (seated behind the lectern) as an old
   Chinese emperor.

   In 1989, the primary supporters of the government were rural peasants
   who had seen their incomes increase considerably during the 1980s as a
   result of the Party's reforms. However, this support was limited in
   usefulness because rural peasants were distributed across the
   countryside. In contrast to urban dwellers who were organized into
   schools and work units, peasant supporters of the government remained
   largely unorganized and difficult to mobilize.

   The Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 were in large measure sparked by
   the death of former Secretary General Hu Yaobang. Hu Yaobang's
   "resignation" from the position of Secretary General of the CPC had
   been announced on January 16, 1987. His forthright calls for "rapid
   reform and his almost open contempt of Maoist excesses" had made him a
   suitable scapegoat in the eyes of Deng Xiaoping and others, after the
   pro-democracy student protests of 1986–1987 (Spence 1999, 685).
   Included in his resignation was also a "humiliating self-criticism",
   which he was forced to issue by the Central Committee of the Communist
   Party. Hu Yaobang's sudden death, due to heart attack, on April 15,
   1989 provided a perfect opportunity for the students to gather once
   again, not only to mourn the deceased Secretary General, but also to
   have their voices heard in "demanding a reversal of the verdict against
   him" and bringing renewed attention to the important issues of the
   1986–1987 pro-democracy protests and possibly also to those of the
   Democracy Wall protests in 1978–1979 (Spence 1999, 697).

Protests begin

   Sing Democracy to China in Hong Kong
   Enlarge
   Sing Democracy to China in Hong Kong

   Protests started out on a small scale, in the form of mourning for Hu
   Yaobang and demands that the party revise their official view of him.
   The protests gained momentum after news of confrontation between
   students and police spread; the belief by students that the Chinese
   media was distorting the nature of their activities also led to
   increased support. At Hu's funeral, a large group of students gathered
   at Tiananmen Square and requested, but failed, to meet premier Li Peng,
   widely regarded to be Hu's political rival. Thus students called for a
   strike in universities in Beijing. On April 26, an editorial in
   People's Daily, following an internal speech made by Deng Xiaoping,
   accused the students of plotting civil unrest. The statement enraged
   the students, and on April 29 about 50,000 students assembled on the
   streets of Beijing, disregarding the warning of a crackdown made by
   authorities and demanded that the government revoke the statement.

   In Beijing, a majority of students from the city's numerous colleges
   and universities participated with support of their instructors and
   other intellectuals. The students rejected official Communist
   Party-controlled student associations and set up their own autonomous
   associations. The students viewed themselves as Chinese patriots, as
   the heirs of the May Fourth Movement for "science and democracy" of
   1919. The protests also evoked memories of the Tiananmen Square
   protests of 1976 which had eventually led to the ousting of the Gang of
   Four. From its origins as a memorial to Hu Yaobang, who was seen by the
   students as an advocate of democracy, the students' activity gradually
   developed over the course of their demonstration from protests against
   corruption into demands for freedom of the press and an end to, or the
   reform of the rule of the PRC by the Communist Party of China and Deng
   Xiaoping, the de facto paramount Chinese leader. Partially successful
   attempts were made to reach out and network with students in other
   cities and with workers.

   Although the initial protests were made by students and intellectuals
   who believed that the Deng Xiaoping reforms had not gone far enough and
   China needed to reform its political systems, they soon attracted the
   support of urban workers who believed that the reforms had gone too
   far. This occurred because the leaders of the protests focused on the
   issue of corruption, which united both groups, and because the students
   were able to invoke Chinese archetypes of the selfless intellectual who
   spoke truth to power.

   Unlike the Tiananmen protests of 1987, which consisted mainly of
   students and intellectuals, the protests in 1989 commanded widespread
   support from the urban workers who were alarmed by growing inflation
   and corruption. In Beijing, they were supported by a large number of
   people. Similar numbers were found in major cities throughout mainland
   China such as Urumqi, Shanghai and Chongqing; and later in Hong Kong,
   Taiwan and Chinese communities in North America and Europe.

Protests escalate

   On May 4, approximately 100,000 students and workers marched in Beijing
   making demands for free media reform and a formal dialogue between the
   authorities and student-elected representatives. The government
   rejected the proposed dialogue, only agreeing to talk to members of
   appointed student organizations. On May 13, two days prior to the
   highly-publicized state visit by the reform-minded Soviet leader
   Mikhail Gorbachev, huge groups of students occupied Tiananmen Square
   and started a hunger strike, insisting the government withdraw the
   accusation made in the People's Daily editorial and begin talks with
   the designated student representatives. Hundreds of students went on
   hunger strikes and were supported by hundreds of thousands of
   protesting students and part of the population of Beijing, for one
   week.

   Protests and strikes began at many colleges in other cities, with many
   students traveling to Beijing to join the demonstration. Generally, the
   demonstration at Tiananmen Square was well-ordered, with daily marches
   of students from various Beijing area colleges displaying their
   solidarity with the boycott of college classes and with the developing
   demands of the protest. The students sang " The Internationale," the
   world socialist anthem, on their way to and within the square. The
   students even showed a surprising gesture of respect to the government
   by helping police arrest three men from Hunan Province who had thrown
   ink on the large portrait of Mao that hangs from Tiananmen, just north
   of the square. One of these men, Yu Dongyue, remained in prison until
   February 2006. Years of torture and bouts of solitary confinement left
   Yu mentally ill and barely recognisable to his friends and family. Lu
   Decheng, another of the three who defaced Mao's portrait with paint,
   was sentenced to life in prison. Despite being paroled in 1998, Lu
   remained a pariah in his own country, constantly hounded by China's
   secret police. In November 2004 Lu slipped out of China across the
   Burmese border, and made his way to Thailand. Months later Chinese
   agents nabbed Lu and turned him over to the Thai immigration police,
   intending to have him extradited back to China for more jail time. In
   April 2006 Lu legally escaped to Canada with a permanent resident visa
   granted for political asylum.

   The students ultimately decided that in order to sustain their movement
   and impede any loss of momentum a hunger strike would need to be
   enacted. The students' decision to undertake the hunger strike was a
   defining moment in their movement. The hunger strike began in May 1989
   and grew to include "more than one thousand persons" (Liu 1994, 315).
   The hunger strike brought widespread support for the students and "the
   ordinary people of Beijing rallied to protect the hunger
   strikers...because the act of refusing sustenance and courting
   government reprisals convinced onlookers that the students were not
   just seeking personal gains but (were) sacrificing themselves for the
   Chinese people as a whole" (Calhoun 1994, 113).

   Partially successful attempts were made to negotiate with the PRC
   government, who were located nearby in Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party
   headquarters and leadership compound. Because of the visit of Mikhail
   Gorbachev, foreign media were present in mainland China in large
   numbers. Their coverage of the protests was extensive and generally
   favorable towards the protesters, but pessimistic that they would
   attain their goals. Toward the end of the demonstration, on May 30, a
   statue of the Goddess of Democracy was erected in the Square and came
   to symbolize the protest to television viewers worldwide.

   The Standing Committee of the Politburo, along with the party elders
   (retired but still-influential former officials of the government and
   Party), were, at first, hopeful that the demonstrations would be
   short-lived or that cosmetic reforms and investigations would satisfy
   the protesters. They wished to avoid violence if possible, and relied
   at first on their far-reaching Party apparatus in attempts to persuade
   the students to abandon the protest and return to their studies. One
   barrier to effective action was that the leadership itself supported
   many of the demands of the students, especially the concern with
   corruption. However, one large problem was that the protests contained
   many people with varying agendas, and hence it was unclear with whom
   the government could negotiate, and what the demands of the protesters
   were. The confusion and indecision among the protesters was also
   mirrored by confusion and indecision within the government. The
   official media mirrored this indecision as headlines in the People's
   Daily alternated between sympathy with the demonstrators and denouncing
   them.

   Among the top leadership, General Secretary Zhao Ziyang was strongly in
   favour of a soft approach to the demonstrations while Li Peng was seen
   to argue in favour of a crackdown. Ultimately, the decision to crack
   down on the demonstrations was made by a group of Party elders who saw
   abandonment of single-party rule as a return of the chaos of the
   Cultural Revolution. Although most of these people had no official
   position, they were able to control the military. Deng Xiaoping was
   chairman of the Central Military Commission and was able to declare
   martial law; Yang Shangkun was President of the People's Republic of
   China, which, although a symbolic position under the 1982 Constitution,
   was legally the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The Party
   elders believed that lengthy demonstrations were a threat to the
   stability of the country. The demonstrators were seen as tools of
   advocates of " bourgeois liberalism" who were pulling the strings
   behind the scenes, as well as tools of elements within the party who
   wished to further their personal ambitions.

Nationwide protests

   At the beginning of the movement, the Chinese news media were given a
   rare opportunity to broadcast the news freely. At that time, most of
   the news media were free to write and report however they wanted to.
   The news were spread quickly across the land. Students from many other
   major cities also organized and started to protest.

Shanghai

   Shanghai's "World Economy newspaper" held a meeting on April 19th to
   discuss about Hu YaoBang's death, and decided to publish a special
   section about him. April 20th, Shanghai's city government heard about
   the news. They immediatly reported to Jiang Zeming. He forced the
   editor to cut parts of the content in the special section. Then he
   found out that the newspaper was already printed and being distributed.
   April 26th, the "People's Daily" published its editorial about anti the
   student protest. Jiang zeming immediatly called on another meeting. And
   then he decided to suspend the job of the editor of "World Economy
   newspaper." Many people say what he did in shanghai was the reason why
   he got promoted to Beijing afterwards.

worldwide protests

   From Hongkong, taiwan, and many other places where Chinese live, they
   gathered around and protested. On May of 27th of 1989, about 300,000
   people gathered in the HongKong's victoria park for a candlelight
   protest event. Many famous Hongkong and taiwan singers attended.

   In Taiwan, the government passed a law in which any Chinese who give up
   their original PRC passport, will be able to get the ROC passport, and
   the government will also give them money to study and living. Around
   the same time, many Taiwan pop singers gathered to sing a special song
   called "The wound of the history" 历史的伤口.

The crackdown

   Although the government declared martial law on May 20, the military's
   entry into Beijing was blocked by throngs of protesters, and the army
   was eventually ordered to withdraw. Meanwhile, the demonstrations
   continued. The hunger strike was approaching the end of the third week,
   and the government resolved to end the matter before deaths occurred.
   After deliberation among Communist party leaders, the use of military
   force to resolve the crisis was ordered, and Zhao Ziyang was ousted
   from political leadership as a result of his support for the student
   demonstrators. The Communist Party then decided to stop the situation
   before it escalated further.
   Tiananmen Square as seen from the Tian'an gate in 2004.
   Enlarge
   Tiananmen Square as seen from the Tian'an gate in 2004.

   Soldiers and tanks from the 27th and 28th Armies of the People's
   Liberation Army were sent to take control of the city. The 27th Army
   was led by a commander related to Yang Shangkun. In a press conference,
   President Bush announced sanctions on Communist China (following calls
   to action from members of congress such as US Senator Jesse Helms). The
   President suggested that intelligence he had received indicated some
   disunity in China's military ranks, and even the possibility of clashes
   within the military during those days. Intelligence reports also
   indicated that 27th and 28th units were brought in from outside
   provinces because the local PLA were considered to be sympathetic to
   the protest and the people of the city. Reporters described elements of
   the 27th as having been most responsible for civilian deaths. After the
   attack on the square, the 27th reportedly established defensive
   positions in Beijing - not of the sort designed to counter a civilian
   uprising, but as if to defend against attacks by other military units.
   The locally-stationed 38th Army, on the other hand, was reportedly
   sympathetic to the uprising. They were supplied no ammunition, and were
   said to be torching their own vehicles as they abandoned them to join
   the protests.

   Entry of the troops into the city was actively opposed by many citizens
   of Beijing. Protesters burned public buses and used them as roadblocks
   to stop the military's progress. The battle continued on the streets
   surrounding the Square, with protesters repeatedly advancing toward the
   People's Liberation Army (PLA) and constructing barricades with
   vehicles, while the PLA attempted to clear the streets using tear gas.
   Many injured citizens were saved by rickshaw drivers who ventured into
   the no-man's-land between the soldiers and crowds and carried the
   wounded off to hospitals. After the attack on the square, live
   television coverage showed many people wearing black armbands in
   protest of the government's action, crowding various boulevards or
   congregating by burnt out and smoking barricades. Meanwhile, the PLA
   systematically established checkpoints around the city, chasing after
   protesters and blocking off the university district.

   Within the Square itself, there was apparently a debate between those
   who wished to withdraw peacefully (including Han Dongfang), and those
   who wished to stand within the square (such as Chai Ling). The assault
   on the square began at 5:40AM on June 4, as armored personnel carriers
   (APCs) and armed troops with fixed bayonets approached from various
   positions. These APCs rolled on up the roads, firing ahead and off to
   the sides, perhaps killing or wounding their own soldiers in the
   process. An unnamed BBC reporter spoke of "indiscriminate fire" within
   the square. Students who sought refuge in buses were pulled out by
   groups of soldiers and beaten with heavy sticks. Even students
   attempting to leave the square were beset by soldiers and beaten.
   Leaders of the protest inside the square, where some had attempted to
   erect flimsy barricades ahead of the APCs, were said to have "implored"
   the students not to use weapons (such as Molotov cocktails) against the
   oncoming soldiers. Meanwhile, many students apparently were shouting,
   "Why are you killing us?"

   The suppression of the protest was immortalized in Western media by the
   famous video footage and photographs of a lone man in a white shirt
   standing in front of a column of tanks which were attempting to drive
   out of Tiananmen Square. Taken on June 5 as the column approached an
   intersection on the Avenue of Eternal Peace, the footage depicted the
   unarmed man standing in the centre of the street, halting the tanks'
   progress. He reportedly said, "Why are you here? You have caused
   nothing but misery." As the tank driver attempted to go around him, the
   " tank man" moved into the tank's path. He continued to stand defiantly
   in front of the tanks for some time, then climbed up onto the turret of
   the lead tank to speak to the soldiers inside. After returning to his
   position blocking the tanks, the man was pulled aside by onlookers who
   perhaps feared he would be shot or run over. Time Magazine dubbed him
   The Unknown Rebel and later named him one of the 100 most influential
   people of the 20th century. British tabloid the Sunday Express reported
   that the man was 19-year-old student Wang Weilin, however the veracity
   of this claim is dubious. What happened to the 'tank man' following the
   demonstration is not known. In a speech to the President's Club in
   1999, Bruce Herschensohn — former deputy special assistant to President
   Richard Nixon — reported that he was executed 14 days later. In Red
   China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, Jan Wong writes that the
   man is still alive and hiding in mainland China. In Forbidden City,
   Canadian children's author William Bell, claims the man was named Wang
   Ai-min and was killed on June 9 after being taken into custody. The
   last official statement from the PRC government about tank man came
   from Jiang Ziamin in an interview with Barbara Walters, when asked
   about the where abouts of tank man Ziamin responded that he "wasn't
   executed".

   After the crackdown in Beijing on June 4, protests continued in much of
   mainland China for several days. There were large protests in Hong
   Kong, where people again wore black in protest. There were protests in
   Guangzhou, and large-scale protests in Shanghai with a general strike.
   There were also protests in other countries, many adopting the use of
   black arm bands as well. However, the government soon regained control.
   Although no large-scale loss of life was reported in ending the
   protests in other cities, a political purge followed in which officials
   responsible for organising or condoning the protests were removed, and
   protest leaders jailed.

Number of deaths

   The number of dead and wounded remains unclear. An unnamed Chinese Red
   Cross official at the time reported that 2,600 people were killed and
   30,000 were injured. Two days later, Yuan Mu, the speaker of the State
   Council, estimated that 300 soldiers and citizens died, 5,000 soldiers
   and 2,000 citizens injured, 400 soldiers lost contact, and that many of
   the soldiers were burned alive by the protesters. Central Committee of
   the Communist Party of China and State Council later claimed that tens
   of PLA soldiers died and more were injured. The Preparatory Committee
   of Autonomous Associations of Tsinghua University claimed that 4,000
   died and 30,000 were injured. Chen Xitong, Beijing mayor, reported
   after the event that 36 students and tens of soldiers died, amounting
   to a total of 200 dead, with 3,000 civilians and 6,000 soldiers
   injured. Foreign reporters that witnessed the incident have claimed
   that at least 3,000 people died. Some lists of casualties were created
   from underground sources with numbers as high as 5,000. In contrast,
   before the government in Beijing had completely re-established control
   over the news media in China, a monitored English language broadcast
   from Beijing stated that at least 3,000 students died in the massacre.
   At the same time, the Chinese Red Cross reported that they had counted
   2,600 people dead - and they still were counting. As both sources are
   impossible to verify given that access to objective information was
   impossible under martial law, the discrepancy between the numbers of
   individuals killed is unresolved. Despite the discrepancy, observers
   outside China (as well as some inside China) generally agree that at
   least 400 and perhaps over 1,000 were killed, as quoted by western
   media such as Los Angeles Times - but cannot agree on the number of
   people who were injured.

   The Chinese government has maintained that there were no death within
   the square itself. However, from videos that were recorded, people can
   see tanks and hearing gunshots. Professor Ding ZiLin (丁子霖) whose son
   was shot dead on the night of June 3rd, 1989 started to collect the
   names of those who were killed during that time, so far, there are 188
   confirmed death which can be found on here in Chinese.

Aftermath

Arrests and purges

   During and after the demonstration, authorities attempted to arrest and
   prosecute the student leaders of the Chinese democracy movement,
   notably Wang Dan, Chai Ling, Zhao Changqing and Wuer Kaixi. Wang Dan
   was arrested, convicted, and sent to prison, then allowed to emigrate
   to the United States on the grounds of medical parole. As a lesser
   figure in the demonstrations, Zhao was released after six months in
   prison. However, he was once again incarcerated for continuing to
   petition for political reform in China. Wuer Kaixi escaped to the
   R.O.C. in Taiwan. He is now married and he holds a job as a political
   commentator on national Taiwan television . Chai Ling escaped to
   France, and then to the United States.

   Chinese authorities summarily tried and executed many of the workers
   they arrested in Beijing. In contrast, the students - many of whom came
   from relatively affluent backgrounds and were well-connected - received
   much lighter sentences. Even Wang Dan, the student leader who topped
   the most wanted list, spent only seven years in prison.

   The Party leadership expelled Zhao Ziyang from the Politburo Standing
   Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of
   China, because he opposed martial law, and Zhao remained under house
   arrest until his death. Hu Qili, the other member of the Politburo
   Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China who opposed the
   martial law but chose not to vote instead of vetoing was also removed
   from the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China,
   but he was able to retain his party membership, and after "Changing his
   opinion", he was reassigned as vice-minister of Machine-Building and
   Electronics Industry. The other member who opposed the martial law by
   not voting instead vetoing it like Zhao Ziyang did was Qiao Shi, who
   was saved by his distant biological relationships with Chiang Kai-shek
   and Chiang Ching-kuo because the need for Taiwan issue: although Qiao
   Shi was also removed from the Politburo Standing Committee of the
   Communist Party of China, he was transferred to a different job with
   equal rank, though the post was mostly ceremonial. Other reform minded
   Chinese leaders such as Wan Li was also put under house arrest
   immediately after he stepped out of the airplane at Beijing Capital
   International Airport upon returning from his shortened trip abroad,
   with the official excuse of "health reasons". When Wan Li was released
   from his house arrest after he finally "changed his opinion" he, like
   Qiao Shi, was transferred to a different position with equal rank but
   mostly ceremonial role.

   The event elevated Jiang Zemin - then Mayor of Shanghai who was not
   involved in this event - to become PRC's President. Members of the
   government prepared a white paper explaining the government's viewpoint
   on the protests. An anonymous source within the PRC government smuggled
   the document out of China, and Public Affairs published it in January
   2001 as the Tiananmen Papers. The papers include a quote by Communist
   Party elder Wang Zhen which alludes to the government's response to the
   demonstrations.

   Two CCTV presenters who reported the events of June 4 in the "News
   Network" program were fired soon after the event. Wu Xiaoyong, the son
   of a Communist Party of China Central Committee member, and former PRC
   foreign minister and vice premier Wu Xueqian were removed from the
   English Program Department of Chinese Radio International. Qian Liren,
   director of the People's Daily (the newspaper of the Communist Party of
   China), was also removed from his post because of reports in the paper
   which were sympathetic towards the students.

Impact on domestic political trends

   The Tiananmen square protests dampened the growing concept of political
   liberalization that was popular in the late 1980s; as a result, many
   democratic reforms that were proposed during the 1980s were swept under
   the carpet. Although there has been some increase in personal freedom
   since then, discussions on structural changes to the PRC government and
   the role of the Communist Party of China remain largely taboo.

   Despite early expectations in the West that PRC government would soon
   collapse and be replaced by the Chinese democracy movement, by the
   early 21st century the Communist Party of China remained in firm
   control of the People's Republic of China, and the student movement
   which started at Tiananmen was in complete disarray.

   In Hong Kong, the Tiananmen square protests led to fears that the PRC
   would not honour its commitments under one country, two systems in the
   impending handover in 1997. One consequence of this was that the new
   governor Chris Patten attempted to expand the franchise for the
   Legislative Council of Hong Kong which led to friction with the PRC.
   There have been large candlelight vigils attended by tens of thousands
   in Hong Kong every year since 1989 and these vigils have continued
   following the transfer of power to the PRC in 1997.

   The protests also marked a shift in the political conventions which
   governed politics in the People's Republic. Prior to the protests,
   under the 1982 Constitution, the President was a largely symbolic role.
   By convention, power was distributed between the positions of
   President, Premier, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of
   China, all of whom were intended to be different people, in order to
   prevent the excesses of Mao-style dictatorship. However, after Yang
   Shangkun used his reserve powers as head of state to mobilise the
   military, the Presidency again became a position imbued with real
   power. Subsequently, the President became the same person as the
   General Secretary of the CPC, and wielded paramount power.
   A memorial depicting a destroyed bicycle and a tank-track - symbol of
   the Tiananmen Square protests - in the Polish city of Wrocław
   Enlarge
   A memorial depicting a destroyed bicycle and a tank-track - symbol of
   the Tiananmen Square protests - in the Polish city of Wrocław

Economic impact

   One reason for this was that the Tiananmen protests did not mark the
   end of economic reform. Granted, in the immediate aftermath of the
   protests, conservatives within the Communist Party attempted to curtail
   some of the free market reforms that had been undertaken as part of
   Chinese economic reform, and reinstitute administrative controls over
   the economy. However, these efforts met with stiff resistance from
   provincial governors and broke down completely in the early 1990s as a
   result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and Deng Xiaoping's trip to
   the south. The continuance of economic reform led to economic growth in
   the 1990s, which allowed the government to regain much of the support
   that it had lost in 1989. In addition, none of the current PRC
   leadership played any active role in the decision to move against the
   demonstrators, and one major leadership figure Premier Wen Jiabao was
   an aide to Zhao Ziyang and accompanied him to meet the demonstrators.
   Today there are economic "sectors" in which business can thrive and
   this has improved the lives of many Chinese and opened up economic
   freedom and access to goods.

   The students leaders at Tiananmen were unable to produce a coherent
   movement or ideology that would last past the mid-1990s. Many of the
   student leaders came from relatively well off sectors of society and
   were seen as out of touch with common people. A number of them were
   socialists and wanted to revert China back to the socialist road. Many
   of the organizations which were started in the aftermath of Tiananmen
   soon fell apart due to personal infighting. Several overseas democracy
   activists were supportive of limiting trade with mainland China which
   significantly decreased their popularity both within China and among
   the overseas Chinese community. A number of NGOs based in the U.S.,
   which aim to bring democratic reform to China and relentlessly protest
   human rights violations that occur in China, remain. One of the oldest
   and most prominent of them, the China Support Network (CSN), was
   founded in 1989 by a group of concerned Americans and Chinese activists
   in response to Tiananmen Square.

A generation gap

   Growing up with little memory of Tiananmen and no memory of the
   Cultural Revolution, but with a full appreciation of the rising
   prosperity and international influence of the PRC as well as the
   difficulties that Russia has had since the end of the Cold War, many
   Chinese no longer consider immediate political liberalization to be
   wise, preferring to see slow stepwise democratization instead. Many
   young Chinese, in view of PRC's rise, are now more concerned with
   economic development, nationalism, the restoration of China's prestige
   in international affairs, and perceived governmental weakness on issues
   like the political status of Taiwan or the Diaoyu Islands dispute with
   Japan.

   Among intellectuals in mainland China, the impact of the Tiananmen
   protests appears to have created something of a generation gap.
   Intellectuals who were in their 20s at the time of the protests tend to
   be far less supportive of the PRC government than younger students who
   were born after the start of the Deng Xiaoping reforms.

   Among urban industrial workers, the continuation of market reforms in
   the 1990s brought with it higher standards of living as well as
   increased economic uncertainty. Protests by urban industrial workers
   over issues such as unpaid wages and local corruption remain frequent
   with estimates of several thousand of these protests occurring each
   year. The Communist Party of China appears unwilling to suffer the
   negative attention of suppressing these protests provided that protests
   remain directed at a local issue and do not call for deeper reform and
   do not involve coordination with other workers. In a reversal of the
   situation in 1989, the centre of discontent in mainland China appears
   to be in rural areas, which have seen incomes stagnate in the 1990s and
   have not been involved in much of the economic boom of that decade.
   However, just as the lack of organization and the distribution of
   peasants prevented them from becoming mobilized in support of the
   government in 1989, these factors also inhibit mobilization against the
   government in the early-21st century.

The present

Taboo in China

   The topic is still a political taboo in mainland China, where any
   public discussion of it is regarded as inappropriate. The only media
   coverage takes the Communist Party of China's view: that it was a
   necessary action to ensure stability. It is common for Chinese,
   especially younger Chinese who live far from Beijing, to be entirely
   unaware of the Tiananmen protests. Every year there is a large rally in
   Hong Kong, where people remember the victims and demand that the CPC's
   official view be changed.

   However, petition letters over the incident have emerged from time to
   time, notably from Dr. Jiang Yanyong and Tiananmen Mothers, an
   organization founded by a mother of one of the victims killed in 1989.
   Tiananmen Square is tightly patrolled on the anniversary of June 4 to
   prevent any commemoration.

   After the PRC Central Government reshuffle in 2004, several cabinet
   members mentioned Tiananmen. In October 2004, during President Hu
   Jintao's visit to France, he reiterated that "the government took
   determined action to calm the political storm of 1989, and enabled
   China to enjoy a stable development". He insisted that the government's
   view on the incident would not change.

   In March 2004, Premier Wen Jiabao said in a press conference that
   during the 1990s there was a severe political storm in the PRC, amid
   the breakdown of the Soviet Union and radical changes in Eastern
   Europe. He stated that the Communist Central Committee successfully
   stabilized the open-door policy and protected the "Career of Socialism
   with Chinese Characteristics".

   In 2005, Li Ao, a Taiwanese political activist and TV celebrity, gave a
   guest lecture at Peking University. He hinted at the 1989 protests by
   referring to the Bonus March Incident in the United States nearly 50
   years earlier. In the speech, he asserted that any national government
   in the world would resort to using military force when their rule is
   threatened.

   In January 2006, Google agreed to censor their mainland China site,
   Google.cn, to remove information about the 1989 Tiananmen Square
   massacre , as well as other topics such as Tibetan independence, the
   banned spiritual movement Falun Gong and the political status of
   Taiwan, confirming that Tiananmen is still an issue the government
   wants to avoid. The uncensored Wikipedia articles on the 1989 protests,
   both in English and Chinese, have been attributed as a cause of the
   blocking of Wikipedia by the government in mainland China. On November
   16, 2006 the Chinese government restored Wikipedia after blocking it
   for over a year. However, subsequent reports suggested that both the
   Chinese and English versions had been re-blocked as of 17 November .

US-EU arms embargo

   The United States and European Union embargo on weapons sales to the
   PRC, put in place as a result of the violent suppression of the
   Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests still remains in place 17 years
   later. The PRC has been calling for a lifting of the ban for many years
   and has had a varying amount of support from members of the Council of
   the European Union. In early 2004, France spearheaded the movement
   within the EU to lift the ban. Former German Chancellor Gerhard
   Schröder publicly added his voice to that of French President Jacques
   Chirac to have the embargo lifted.

   The arms embargo was discussed at a PRC-EU summit in the Netherlands on
   December 7-9, 2004. In the runup to the summit, the PRC had attempted
   to increase pressure on the EU Council to lift the ban by warning that
   the ban could hurt PRC-EU relations. PRC Vice Foreign Minister Zhang
   Yesui called the ban "outdated", and he told reporters, "If the ban is
   maintained, bilateral relations will definitely be affected." In the
   end, the EU Council did not lift the ban. EU spokeswoman Françoise le
   Bail said there were still concerns about the PRC's commitment to human
   rights. But at the time, the EU did state its commitment to work
   towards lifting the ban. Bernard Bot, Foreign Minister of the
   Netherlands, which held the EU's rotating presidency at that time,
   said, "We are working assiduously but...the time is not right to lift
   the embargo." Following the summit, the EU Council confirmed that it
   had the political will to continue to work towards lifting the embargo.
   PRC Premier Wen Jiabao said after the meeting that the embargo did not
   reflect the partnership between the PRC and the EU.

   The PRC continued to press for the embargo to be lifted, and some
   member states began to drop their opposition. Jacques Chirac pledged to
   have the ban lifted by mid-2005. However, the Anti-Secession Law of the
   People's Republic of China passed in March 2005 increased cross-strait
   tensions, damaging attempts to lift the ban, and several EU Council
   members changed their minds. Members of the U.S. Congress had also
   proposed restrictions on the transfer of military technology to the EU
   if they lifted the ban. Thus the EU Council failed to reach a consensus
   and although France and Germany pushed to have the embargo lifted, no
   decision was agreed upon in subsequent meetings.

   Britain took charge of the EU Presidency in the summer of 2005, making
   the lifting of the embargo all but impossible for the duration of the
   term. Britain had always had some reservations on lifting the ban and
   wished to put it to the side, rather than sour EU-US relations further.
   Perhaps more importantly, the failure of the European Constitution and
   the ensuing disagreement over the European Budget and Common
   Agricultural Policy has superseded the matter of the embargo in
   importance. Britain wanted to use its presidency to push for wholesale
   reform of the EU, so the lifting of the ban will become even more
   unlikely. The election of a new European Commission President José
   Manuel Durão Barroso, has also made a lifting of the ban more
   difficult. At a meeting with Chinese leaders in mid-July 2005, he said
   that China's poor record on human rights would slow any changes to the
   EU's ban on arms sales to China.

   Political will may be changing in countries that are more in favour of
   lifting the embargo. Schröder lost the 2005 German federal election to
   Angela Merkel, who became chancellor on November 22, 2005, and is
   strongly against lifting the ban. Other opposition leaders are against
   lifting the ban. Jacques Chirac will find it difficult to remain
   president in 2007—he may not even be a successful candidate, due to
   losing the French vote over the European Constitution. Nicolas Sarkozy
   is a strong contender for the French presidency and is not as much in
   favour of lifting the ban as Chirac is.

   In addition, the European Parliament has consistently opposed the
   lifting of the arms embargo to the PRC. Though its agreement is not
   necessary for lifting the ban, many argue it reflects the will of the
   European people better as it is the only directly elected European
   body—the EU Council is appointed by member states. The European
   Parliament has repeatedly opposed any lifting of the arms embargo on
   the PRC:
     * The resolution of April 28, 2005, on the Annual Report on Human
       Rights in the World 2004 and the EU's policy on the matter,
     * The resolution of October 23, 2003, on the annual report from the
       Council to the European Parliament on the main aspects and basic
       choices of CFSP, it insisted on a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan
       issue through dialogue across the Taiwan Straits and called on
       China to withdraw missiles in the coastal provinces adjacent to the
       Taiwan Straits and
     * The resolution on relations between the EU, China, and Taiwan and
       security in the Far East of July 7, 2005. The EP has noted several
       times that the current human rights situation in China, with
       regards to fundamental civil, cultural and political freedoms does
       not meet even the international standards recognized by China.

   This arms embargo has limited China's options from where it may seek
   military hardware. Among the sources that were sought included the
   former Soviet bloc that it had a strained relationship with as a result
   of the Sino-Soviet split. Other willing suppliers have been Israel and
   South Africa.

Compensation

   Although the Chinese government never acknowledged wrongdoing when it
   came to the incident, in April 2006 a payment was made to the family of
   one of the victims, the first publicized case of the government
   offering redress to a Tiananmen-related victim's family. The payment
   was termed a "hardship assistance", given to Tang Deying (唐德英) whose
   son, Zhou Guocong ( Simplified Chinese: 周国聪; Traditional Chinese: 周國聰）
   died at the age of 15 while in police custody in Chengdu on June 6,
   1989, two days after the Chinese Army dispersed the Tiananmen
   protestors. The woman was reportedly paid 70,000 yuan (approximately
   $8,700 USD). This has been welcomed by various Chinese activists, but
   was regarded by some as a measure to maintain social stability and not
   believed to herald a changing of the Party's official position.

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