Wake up（348）

 

348

 

When recalling the 1989 democracy movement, Liu Xiaosheng said: The incident started with the death of Hu Yaobang and the commemoration activities for Hu Yaobang.

On April 15, 1989, Hu Yaobang, who served successively as Chairman and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in the 1980s, died of a heart attack. This aroused strong repercussions and condolences from students, and became the initial driving force for mass gatherings.

Many propaganda posters praising Hu Yaobang appeared on university campuses one after another, calling on the government to re-examine Hu Yaobang's views. After a few days, most posters began to mention broader political issues, including press freedom, democracy, and official corruption.

After April 15, some people who mourned Hu Yaobang spontaneously organized small-scale gatherings near the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square. On the same day, Peking University and Tsinghua University also set up Hu Yaobang's mourning hall on campus, and local students in Beijing gathered in Tiananmen Square one after another.

On April 16, students in Xi'an and Shanghai also began to organize similar small-scale student gatherings.

Under the leadership of some college students, the activities that were originally purely mourning turned to demand that the government control inflation, deal with unemployment, solve official corruption, government accountability, press freedom, democratic politics and freedom of association, etc.

On April 17, students from China University of Political Science and Law made a large wreath in memory of Hu Yaobang, and on the same day, more people gathered in Tiananmen Square. At 5:00 p.m., 500 students from China University of Political Science and Law arrived at the East Gate of the Great Hall of the People near Tiananmen Square to express their condolences to Hu Yaobang. Afterwards, speakers from different backgrounds held public speeches, including commemorating Hu Yaobang and discussing social issues. The police quickly intervened in the gathering of demonstrators and tried to persuade the students to leave Tiananmen Square, as it was seen as hindering the operation of the Great Hall of the People.

On the evening of April 17, more than 3,000 students from Peking University held a student parade in Tiananmen Square, and soon nearly 1,000 university students from Tsinghua University also participated in the parade. After the two groups of students arrived at Tiananmen Square, they soon joined the crowd that had gathered in the square. As the event grew in size and the gathering turned into a demonstration, the students began drafting and presenting seven demands to the government:

1. Re-evaluate Comrade Hu Yaobang's merits and demerits, and affirm his views of "democracy, freedom, relaxation, and harmony".

2. Severely punish the perpetrators who beat students and the public, and require those responsible to apologize to the victims.

3. Promulgate the press law as soon as possible to protect the freedom of the press and allow private newspapers to run.

4. Require national leading cadres to disclose the actual property income of themselves and their families to the people of the whole country, strictly investigate official corruption, and disclose details.

5. Require relevant national leaders to conduct a formal review of the mistakes of the education policy to the people of the whole country and hold them accountable, demand a substantial increase in education funding, and improve the treatment of intellectuals.

6. Re-evaluate the anti-bourgeois liberalization movement, and thoroughly rehabilitate the citizens who suffered innocent injustice during it.

7. Strongly request news organizations to give fair, truthful and timely reports on this democratic patriotic movement.

On the morning of April 18, Wang Dan and others sat in front of the Great Hall of the People, demanding that the government accept seven demands. Some crowds gathered around the Monument to the People's Heroes to sing patriotic songs, and students also hosted speaking events in Tiananmen Square.

At this time, Wang Dan and another student, Guo Haifeng, entered the Great Hall of the People and met with the director of the Bureau of Letters and Calls of the National People's Congress. Wang Dan and Guo Haifeng submitted seven demands to the director of the Letters and Calls Bureau. The Director of Letters and Calls stated that he would submit seven requests to the higher authorities, but hoped that the students would not sit in and return to school.

Wang Dan and Guo Haifeng stated that they would not stop the sit-in and return to school until the handover was confirmed. After Wang Dan and Guo Haifeng returned to sit outside the Great Hall of the People, they entered the Great Hall of the People for the second time and demanded that the person in charge above the Standing Committee level of the National People's Congress must come forward to accept the seven requirements before they would stop the sit-in. The Director of Letters and Calls said that he would report it to his superiors.

Afterwards, Li Jinjin, chairman of Peking University Research Institute, told the sit-in students that he would enter the Great Hall of the People to submit a petition on behalf of the students, but if the NPC deputies accepted the petition, the students should leave. The students agreed with Li Jinjin's appeal. So Li Jinjin entered the Great Hall of the People to negotiate. At 6:00 p.m., Song Shixiong and Liu Yandong, deputies to the National People's Congress, stood on the steps of the Great Hall of the People and met the students sitting in the meditation.

Liu Xiaosheng said: At that time, the Xinhuamen incident also occurred. Demonstrating students once gathered at the Zhongnanhai Xinhuamen sit-in to protest, but were eventually driven away.

On the morning of April 18, while the students stayed in Tiananmen Square for a sit-in, thousands of students gathered at the Xinhua Gate, the entrance to Zhongnanhai, where Chinese leaders live, to demand a dialogue between the leadership and the students. The police immediately restricted the students from entering Zhongnanhai, and the students decided to hold a sit-in to express their dissatisfaction.

In the evening, 2,000 to 3,000 students from Peking University, Renmin University, Beijing Normal University, and University of Political Science and Law gathered in front of Xinhua Gate, and 6,000 to 7,000 people watched.

The students "gathered at Xinhua Gate because no one from the government has come out to express their views." The students chanted the slogan "Li Peng come out!" in unison many times, and tried six times to break through the security line without success.

In the early morning hours of April 20, a large number of police officers and multiple buses surrounded the students sitting in front of the Xinhua Gate. The police dragged the students onto the buses. In the process, students and police clashed. Some students were injured. Xinhua News Agency quoted the Beijing Public Security Bureau as saying that four police officers were injured by thrown bricks and bottles. Many students believed they had been mistreated by the police, and rumors of violent police evictions spread quickly.

The Xinhuamen incident angered many students on campus, and many students who had not been actively involved in political affairs in the past decided to join the protest because of the incident.

During this period, a group of self-proclaimed "workers' representatives", the Beijing Workers' Autonomous Federation, distributed two leaflets challenging the rule of the central leadership.

Liu Xiaosheng talked about Jiang Zemin and the World Economic Herald:

On April 19, the Shanghai newspaper World Economic Herald, which is close to the reformists, decided to publish a special report commemorating Hu Yaobang. One of the articles, written by Yan Jiaqi, spoke positively of the Beijing student protests and called for a re-examination of the 1987 call for Hu Yaobang's resignation. However, after learning that the central government's stance was becoming more conservative, Jiang Zemin asked the "World Economic Herald" to delete relevant long-form sensitive reports, but the "World Economic Herald" protested the censorship by publishing a blank page.

In the end, Jiang Zemin immediately fired the editor-in-chief Qin Benli. His decisive action won positive comments from conservatives.

At the time, Li Peng, who advocated maintaining a tough stance on the demonstrations, had serious political differences with Zhao Ziyang, who advocated continuous communication with students.