Wake up（350）

 

350

 

Liu Xiaosheng said: 1989 was a year that shocked the world. The student movement escalated again. On May 10, the student movement parade in Beijing put forward demands for "freedom to run newspapers" and "freedom to associate".

While the official dialogue delegation elected by the student self-government association was preparing to start a dialogue with the Chinese government, the leaders of the Beijing University Student Self-Government Federation were unwilling to allow the official dialogue delegation to unilaterally control the entire protest. In the face of internal discord among the student body and declining participation, influential student leaders, including Wang Dan and Wuer Kaixi, called for more radical measures to revive the protest momentum. Among them, they believe that the "dialogue" proposed by the Chinese government is just a way to lure students into submission, so they mobilized students to prepare for a hunger strike on May 11, hoping to change the characterization of the April 26 Editorial.

Liu Xiaosheng said:

In May 1989, Gorbachev made a historic visit to China. Gorbachev was the first Soviet supreme leader to visit China after the Sino-Soviet split in the late 1950s. The relationship between the two countries deteriorated. The former Chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers Khrushchev visited China in 1959 and attended the celebration of China as a state guest. The 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The leader of the Soviet Union visited China again after 30 years, symbolizing the improvement of the relationship between the two countries. Therefore, the Chinese leader attaches great importance to this state visit.

However, those student leaders decided to launch a hunger strike since Chai Ling read the "Hunger Strike Book" on May 13, two days before the high-profile state visit to China by General Secretary Gorbachev of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; It is believed that the ceremony to welcome Gorbachev must be arranged in Tiananmen Square, so the hunger strike can be used as a bargaining chip to force the government to meet their demands. In addition, the hunger strike gained widespread sympathy from the public, which in turn made the student movement a moral act and was sought after by the masses.

The protests in Beijing prompted universities in other cities to organize protests and class strikes. At the same time, many students also went to Beijing to participate in demonstrations. In the afternoon of May 13, about 300,000 people gathered in Tiananmen Square .

On the whole, the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square remained orderly. University students from different parts of Beijing marched every day to express protest demands and show solidarity. At the same time, many students also sang the famous song of the Proletarian Internationalist Movement during the march. "The Internationale". In mid-May, students launched a hunger strike, prompting more than 400 cities across China to protest and express their support.

From early to mid-May, censorship restrictions on interviews with the June 4 protesters were visibly lifted, and state media began broadcasting images of sympathetic protesters, including hunger strikes.

Fearing that the demonstrations would get out of hand, Deng Xiaoping demanded that the squares should be cleared of protesters during Gorbachev's visit to China.

In order to meet Deng Xiaoping's request, Zhao Ziyang decided to still use a soft approach and instructed his subordinates to negotiate with the students immediately.

Zhao Ziyang believes that at this time, he can still successfully use patriotism to attract the students' concern, and let the students understand that if other people are informed of signs of internal turmoil during the Sino-Soviet summit meeting, it will embarrass the whole country.

On the morning of May 13, Yan Mingfu, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, held an emergency meeting and invited important student leaders and intellectuals including Liu Xiaobo, Chen Ziming, and Wang Juntao. Yan Mingfu said that the government is ready to start a direct dialogue with the student representatives, but the premise is that the students must first evacuate Tiananmen Square in order to hold the welcome ceremony for Gorbachev's visit to China, which also caused divisions among the student leaders.

On May 14, intellectuals headed by Dai Qing, under the permission of Hu Qili, secretary of the Central Secretariat, submitted opinions directly to Guangming Daily through government censorship, calling on students to leave Tiananmen Square as soon as possible. However, many students believed that Intellectuals are refusing to make concessions for the sake of the government speaking.

That night, the Chinese government delegation headed by Yan Mingfu started formal negotiations with student representatives Shen Tong and Xiang Xiaoji. Yan Mingfu affirmed the patriotic nature of the student movement and begged the students to withdraw from Tiananmen Square.

Although Yan Mingfu's sincerity succeeded in getting some students willing to reach a compromise, the meeting became increasingly chaotic as students from different factions were unable to coordinate in advance or make coherent demands. After willing to commit to broadcasting the negotiation process on the live issue, it was announced that the meeting was suspended indefinitely.

After that, Yan Mingfu went directly to Tiananmen Square to try to persuade the students to leave, and even expressed that he was willing to be held hostage by the students in exchange for the decision to leave, but the students ignored his advice.

The next day, Yan Mingfu also asked Li Peng if he would formally withdraw the content of the April 26 editorial at the request of the students and set the student movement as a "patriotic democratic movement." However, Li Peng rejected all these suggestions.

In the end, during Gorbachev's visit to China, the students still decided to stay in Tiananmen Square, which also made Yang Shangkun's welcome ceremony for Gorbachev's visit to China changed to Beijing Capital Airport.

The Sino-Soviet summit meeting was held after 30 years of Sino-Soviet hostility. In addition to marking the return of Sino-Soviet relations to normal, it is also regarded as a breakthrough of historical significance for Chinese leaders.

However, in contrast, the embarrassment brought about by the students' insistence on protesting in Tiananmen Square led to the embarrassment of many senior leaders who were originally leaning towards the moderates, and began to turn to the "hardliners" who were willing to implement the approach.

When Deng Xiaoping and Gorbachev held a summit meeting between the leaders of the two countries in the Great Hall of the People, the student crowd launched a demonstration in the nearby Tiananmen Square.

After Gorbachev's meeting with Zhao Ziyang on May 16, Zhao Ziyang told Gorbachev in front of the international news media that Deng Xiaoping was still "vital" in China.

In this regard, Deng Xiaoping believed that Zhao Ziyang's words were to blame him for the mishandling of the student movement. The remarks marked a decisive split between Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang, two of China's top leaders.