More than three decades after the Tiananmen Square massacre, the memory of that student uprising is an open wound in China’s recent history. In 1989, thousands of young people and workers rose up in Beijing for basic demands for democratic freedoms and against the abuses and excesses of the authoritarian regime of the Communist Party. The response was a fierce repression that, to this day, does not have exactly the number of dead and imprisoned by the security forces. The demands of yesterday, the ideas in force today.

By Oda Cuentas

Throughout the 1980s, China experienced a series of economic reforms under the regime of Deng Xiaoping. Reforms that consisted of adopting market reforms that generated growing inequalities, corruption and social discontent.  Xiaoping, leader of the Chinese bureaucracy, was the main driver of the opening towards capitalism, a process that led to the transformation of the economy from a bureaucratized workers’ state through methods of extreme exploitation — similar to the harsh working conditions faced by workers during the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century— to become the imperialist power of today. Inflation and unemployment increased, and especially young university students were frustrated by the lack of existing political freedoms and speech. From 1986, isolated protests were already beginning to take place in the universities, but the spark that would ignite the movement would not arrive until 1989.

On April 15, 1989, the death of Hu Yaobang, former general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party — who, together with Deng Xiaoping, promoted economic reforms, although he was perceived as representing a more liberal current within the regime— caused a resurgence of the mobilizations mainly led by students, workers and intellectuals. These mobilizations, which began as an act of mourning, quickly turned into broader protests against the regime. They demanded greater political freedoms and denounced both corruption and the capitalist-style economic policies applied by Deng Xiaoping and his prime Minister Li Peng.

On April 17 and 18, thousands of students gathered in front of the Great Hall of the People, calling for political reforms, freedom of expression, of the press and an end to corruption. Other marches were also started in major cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou. On April 22, at Hu Yaobang’s official funeral, more than 100,000 people gathered in the Square. Some students try to deliver a letter with demands to the government, but they are ignored, which increases the tension. On April 23-24, the Beijing Autonomous Student Federation is formed, challenging the Communist Party’s control over student unions. On April 26, Deng Xiaoping, the supreme leader of the regime, writes a strong editorial in the People’s Daily, under the title “It is necessary to take a firm stand against the agitation” in which he describes the protests as an ”anti-Party and anti-socialist agitation” and thereby determines their illegality. In response, on the 27th, thousands of students defy the ban and take to the streets en masse. The Chinese regime’s brutal repression and attack on youth protests aroused sympathy among workers. The days pass with an enormous intensity, typical of those who see ahead the need for profound transformations.

Throughout May, the protest spread to thousands of students and workers who gathered in Tiananmen Square, in the center of Beijing. The demands included freedom of expression, democratization of the political system and greater governmental transparency. Despite discussions with government officials, the authorities began to see the protest as a threat to state order.

On May 4, in commemoration of the seventy years of the anti-Japanese student protests and for the modernization of China, more than 100,000 people, including intellectuals and journalists, participate in marches and protests that spread to more than 100 cities. On May 13, a mass hunger strike begins in Tiananmen Square. Thousands of students participate to put pressure on the government. With the arrival of Gorbachev in Beijing, a million people took to the streets. The government was unable to use the Great Hall of the People due to the occupation of the Square. With the presence of international media, the magnitude of the protests is exposed to the world.

Tiananmen Square, May 17, 1989

The pressure was such that a meeting had to be arranged between students and Premier Li Peng, without results. On May 19, Zhao Ziyang, the general secretary of the CPC, visited the square for the last time, telling the students present at the demonstration: “You are still young. Don’t regret it all your life,” trying to convince the insurgent youth to lift the measure and being aware that the CCP regime, opted for the hard line to stop the protest whatever the cost, before it was too late to prevent the triumph of the revolution.

On May 20, the Chinese government declared Martial law, dismissed and placed Zhao Ziyang under house arrest, and began mobilizing the army to quell the protest. However, the protesters remained firm, blocking the streets and creating barricades to prevent access to the square. The military is temporarily retreating. Meanwhile, the world was watching carefully, and tensions were rising.

The “Tank Man”. Photo by Jeff Widener

On June 4, the government delivered the final blow. He deployed the army to crush the protest. The repression left thousands of people dead and injured – according to estimates of protest participants, up to 10,000 people — and marked the beginning of a systematic silencing of what happened.

The violent repression that put an end to that massive uprising led by Chinese students and young people — who openly defied the authoritarian regime of the Communist Party — marked a breaking point. Such was the magnitude of the demonstrations that took place during the spring of 1989 in Tiananmen Square, which today continue to be a banned topic in China, under the poor title of “Political Upheaval between the spring and summer of 1989”.

The different social demands converged in the vast Tiananmen Square, located in the center of Beijing and surrounded by the Forbidden City, the Chinese Parliament and the National Museum. For about six weeks, it became the symbolic and physical center of a massive protest against the market reforms promoted by the regime.

This movement was not an isolated episode. He was part of a global wave that questioned the Stalinist regimes, although in China the bureaucracy managed to consolidate its power. The defeat of Tiananmen facilitated the transformation of the country into an authoritarian capitalist power, led by an elite that today retains iron political control.

Let’s remember that, in the previous years, the country was undergoing a profound economic transformation. Under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, market reforms were adopted that generated growing inequalities and popular discontent. The student protests at the end of the 80s were the reflection of a desire for change that crossed an entire generation, which was inspired by movements that demanded greater democratic freedoms and that toured Eastern Europe.

The restoration of capitalism in China was accompanied by a strong economic boom, driven by huge investments by foreign monopolies that took advantage of the low cost of Chinese labor. This development was far from bringing improvements for the majority of the population in the Asian country, but it accentuated social inequalities, implied the loss of achievements obtained during the revolution, caused a serious environmental deterioration that turned the country into one of the most polluted in the world. At the same time, headed by Xi Jinping, the bureaucratic apparatus retains an authoritarian one-party regime.

In a further example of the attempt to hide the Tiananmen Massacre, this year the Chinese government intensified repression and social control, especially over the group of Tiananmen Mothers, to the point of completely isolating them during their commemoration in the Wan’an Cemetery, banning phones and cameras. Despite the imposed silence, 108 relatives signed an open letter demanding justice, truth and reparations for the victims of 1989. “The repression continues,” as Zhang Xianling, mother of Wang Nan, one of the victims, expressed with pain. The CCP regime demonstrates its resistance to any form of collective memory that can revive the spirit of protest and social questioning.

But, despite his attempts to cover the sun with his hands, the spirit of 1989 was not buried. In a polarized world, where the world order is questioned, this giant resurfaces. The protests in China do not stop, and thousands of people, despite the repression, are challenging the regime in a transversal way: students, workers, in villages, cities and provinces. Each time, with less and less fear. The “ghost of Tiananmen” is still alive, because it embodies the living essence of the rebellion of a people who, even under the shadow of authoritarianism, continue to fight for a world worthy of being lived.