Wake up（354）

 

354

 

When Liu Xiaosheng reviewed the June 4th student movement, he said:

Since June 4, when the army took control of Tiananmen Square, bloody conflicts between the military and civilians have continued for several days, and gradually returned to a stable state. The image of blocking the march of the tank convoy alone caused a sensation all over the world, and the photo is regarded as one of the iconic photos of the entire June 4 incident.

Hong Kong and Macau immediately launched large-scale demonstrations to support the demonstrators in Beijing. Among them, more than 100,000 to 200,000 people participated in the demonstration in Macau, accounting for half of the population of Macau at that time. The demonstration was also the largest in Macau's history. In addition, some countries also launched protests against the clearing of the army.

After the news spread that the students who participated in the Tiananmen Square protests returned to their original campuses and the army cleared the ground, large-scale outbreaks broke out in cities in mainland China, including Chengdu, Xi'an, Wuhan, Nanjing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Protests continued for several days.

In Guangzhou, tens of thousands of students once occupied the main arterial Haizhu Bridge for four days, paralyzing the traffic in the whole city. By the 8th, because the army was about to enter the city, the crowd had to disperse.

According to Amnesty International's investigation, at least 300 people were killed in Chengdu on June 5. Among them, local troops in Chengdu used stun grenades, batons, bayonets and electric shock batons to attack civilians, and the police also deliberately asked the hospital not to accept students or provide ambulance service that night.

In Xi'an City, from June 5th to June 6th, local students also launched large-scale demonstrations, and workers who joined the strike began to set up roadblocks. However, on June 8, the People's Government of Shaanxi Province stated that the city had stabilized, and put forward the implementation policy of "stabilizing the rioters first, and avoiding direct conflicts and intensifying conflicts as much as possible."

In Shanghai, on June 5th, students initiated demonstrations and began to set up roadblocks. Factory workers also launched large-scale strikes and protests. For a time, the absenteeism rate of Shanghai's workers rose, and some factories were forced to suspend operations. Power usage drops. These actions paralyzed the railway and road traffic, and many public transport vehicles were unable to provide normal services in the morning. The BBC reported that "tens of thousands of workers were unable to commute normally." The Shanghai Municipal People's Government dispatched 6,500 people cleared roadblocks to resume traffic.

However, at 8:30 that night, train 161 from Beijing hit and killed 6 people who were trying to block the train at the crossing of Guangxin Road, and injured 6 others. At 10:00 p.m., more than 300,000 people gathered at the scene, and the crowd also began to beat the train drivers and staff and burn several train carriages to express their dissatisfaction. The railway was interrupted.

On June 7, students from Tongji University, East China Normal University, and University of Shanghai for Science and Technology occupied the auditoriums and teaching buildings of their respective schools, and turned them into mourning halls to commemorate the victims of the June 4 incident. More and more students participated in erecting roadblocks to block traffic, but more than 3,000 decided to leave the campus temporarily after hearing that Shanghai might also be under martial law. That night, Shanghai Mayor Zhu Rongji made a televised speech and mentioned: "As the mayor, I solemnly declare that the municipal party committee and the municipal government have never considered using the army, and have never planned to implement military control or martial law. We only pursue the stability of Shanghai. , stabilize the overall situation, persist in production, and ensure livelihood.”

On June 5, about 20,000 local university students in Wuhan decided to march to Tiananmen Square to express their dissatisfaction. In addition, demonstrators also blocked traffic on the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge and gathered in the square in front of Wuhan Station. On the second day, students continued to demonstrate on the streets and disrupted local traffic. At the same time, about 10,000 students decided to sit in protest directly on the railway tracks, which led to the suspension of railway lines between Beijing, Wuhan and Guangzhou. Workers of major local companies launched a strike. In the early hours of June 7, students began to block traffic with buses and roadblocks, and erected mourning halls to commemorate the victims of the June 4 incident. However, a small group of radicalized students stopped a freight train and began dousing it with petrol, but were stopped by police as they prepared to burn it. But this has made the relationship between the local police and residents increasingly tense, and residents began to withdraw cash and rush to buy supplies.

On June 5, June 6, and June 7, local students in Nanjing launched demonstrations and gave speeches everywhere. In addition, the demonstrators also blocked nearby traffic and tried to unite with workers to launch a strike. At around 7 a.m. on June 7, more than 400 students from several universities, including Hohai University, drove four buses to block the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge until evening. Put up roadblocks. It was not until after 4:00 p.m. that day that the students and the crowd were persuaded and evacuated, allowing traffic to resume for a while. However, on June 8, students from Nanjing University and Hohai University regained control of the one-kilometer traffic around Nanjing Station. At the same time, students also staged a sit-in on the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge to express their dissatisfaction. Regarding the students' violent reaction, the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China believed that the local situation was getting out of control, and successively told the students that the Ministry of Public Security would severely punish the planners of the actions.

After the military took control of Tiananmen Square, mainland Chinese authorities began mass arrests and dismissed government officials who worked on or supported protesters.

According to the "1989 Chronicle of Stopping Unrest in Beijing and Quenching Counter-Revolutionary Riots" compiled and published by the General Office of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, Beijing arrested a total of 1,103 suspects involved in the "riots" after the "June 4th Movement". Some citizens were charged with robbery and sentenced to seven or ten years in prison for simply taking military bags left by soldiers on the street. Many people who participated in the June 4 incident went into exile overseas one after another.

Bao Tong, who had served as Zhao Ziyang's assistant, was accused of leaking state secrets and counter-revolutionary propaganda, and was sentenced to 7 years in prison in July 1992.

Wang Dan and Zhao Changqing were among the few student leaders who were listed as wanted criminals and were arrested. Wang Dan, who was listed at the top of the most wanted list of student leaders, was first sentenced to 4 years in prison. In 1998, he was released on medical parole. Released from prison and allowed to immigrate to live in the United States; he went on to earn a bachelor's degree at Harvard University, where he worked primarily as an academic. Zhao Changqing was released after serving a six-month prison term for being seen as a relatively minor public figure in the protests, but has since been jailed again for continuing to demand political reform in China. After the incident, Wuer Kaixi fled to Taiwan and worked as a political commentator for Taiwan Central Radio for a long time. After that, he expressed his willingness to surrender three times and hoped to return to mainland China to visit his relatives, but he was eventually sent back to Taiwan. Li Lu became an investment banker on Wall Street and founded a company. Chai Ling first went into exile in France, and then transferred to the United States to seek political asylum; later she worked for a high-tech company in the United States and founded Girls' Voice, a non-profit organization that focuses on women's rights and family planning issues in mainland China.

Chen Ziming and Wang Juntao were arrested when they were preparing to go into exile at the end of 1989. The Chinese mainland authorities accused them of being "behind the scenes" of the entire protest and sentenced them to 13 years in prison in 1990.

After the army suppressed the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square on June 4, the Chinese government began to strengthen the control of the news media and citizens' freedom of speech, and at the same time punished domestic and foreign media workers for the June 4 incident. Although the state media mostly reported sympathy for the students immediately after the army cleared the area, afterward all those in charge were dismissed from their posts as punishment, or accepted a review and everyone passed.

Among them, on the "News Network" broadcast on China Central Television from June 4th to June 5th, the four news anchors who were responsible for reporting the incident because of their grief were Du Xian and Zhang Hongmin, Xue Fei and Li Ruiying. partner. But after the incident, CCTV passed the study, Du Xian and Xue Fei's attitude did not change, they were transferred and punished, and they resigned after three years. However, Li Ruiying, Zhang Hongmin and others checked and met the requirements, and only then will there be a world of difference in the future. Wu Xiaoyong, the deputy program director of the English Department of China Radio International, who is also the son of former Chinese Foreign Minister Wu Xueqian, and Chen Yuanneng, an English announcer, also expressed sympathy for the demonstrators because of their programs. Wu Xiaoyong was later arrested, and Chen Yuanneng If you can, you will be banned from leaving the country. The editors of People's Daily, including its president Qian Liren and editor-in-chief Tan Wenrui, were dismissed because they published a report sympathetic to the demonstrators. Editors including Wu Xuecan were sentenced to 4 years in prison for publishing special related reports without permission.

All international news outlets were ordered to stop broadcasting during the military operation in Beijing, while authorities shut down satellite feeds as early as May 24. However, many broadcasting companies still ignored these bans and tried to report the situation to the outside world through trial phone calls, and many related video records were quickly smuggled out of mainland China, including the Spanish TV station in the early morning of June 4. The exclusive record of the Tiananmen Square situation. During the military operations, some foreign journalists were harassed by the relevant authorities in mainland China. Among them, CBS reporter Ross and his partner photographer were detained by the Chinese mainland authorities. However, he continued to report on Tiananmen Square through his mobile phone. Condition. Several foreign journalists who reported that mainland Chinese authorities had dispatched troops to clear the site were expelled in the following weeks, while others continued to be harassed by the authorities or blacklisted. The consulates of various countries in Shanghai were told by the Chinese mainland authorities that they could not guarantee the personal safety of journalists, and began to require every news media to comply with the newly issued guidelines.

In order to exclude cadres who sympathize with the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, the top leadership of the CCP launched a year-and-a-half-long rectification plan to "strictly deal with internal party members who strongly lean towards the road of bourgeois liberalization." According to reports, nearly 40,000 Chinese officials were investigated for their actions during the protests, more than 30,000 Chinese Communist Party members were forced to transfer their positions, and it is estimated that more than 1,000,000 officials had their political reliability reassessed.

During this period, several Chinese diplomats traveled abroad to request political asylum. The protests led to the decision of the Chinese authorities to strengthen their role, and many of the liberal practices introduced in the 1980s were reversed after the June 4 incident, while China returned to the traditional Leninist model and regained control of the press and mass media.

However, the June 4th incident made the Chinese mainland authorities understand that neither the Chinese People's Liberation Army nor the Beijing police had sufficient anti-riot equipment such as rubber bullets and tear gas. Therefore, after the protests ended, the riot police in various cities in mainland China Acquire non-lethal related equipment one after another. At the same time, the June 4th incident also prompted the Chinese mainland authorities to decide to increase domestic "stability maintenance" spending and expand the authority of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force to suppress urban protests.

Relevant authorities in mainland China have successively arrested or detained tens of thousands of people from all over mainland China, and according to the Dui Hua Foundation citing information from various provincial people's governments, in the spring of 1989, 1,602 people related to the protests were sentenced fixed-term imprisonment. Many were imprisoned or sent to labor camps, where they were not allowed to meet with their families. In addition to torture and pressure these people suspected of participating in demonstrations, the relevant units also arrange these dissidents in the same cell as the murderer or rapist; Not enough, not even enough space for everyone to sleep. Shanghai prisons and labor reform teams carried out ideological and political education on "quenching counter-revolutionary riots" and played videos such as "Flying the Flag of the Republic".

From 3 November to 21 November 2008, the Committee against Torture held its forty-first session and considered reports submitted by Member States under Article 19 of the United Nations Convention against Torture. Among them, the Committee Against Torture is concerned about the way the Chinese authorities have handled the June 4th incident. It believes that although many family members have filed complaints that they were "killed, arrested or disappeared during the Beijing crackdown on June 4, 1989", the Chinese authorities have been slow. No investigation was launched. At the same time, the Committee against Torture also mentioned that the mainland Chinese authorities did not inform the family members of the whereabouts of the relevant persons, and there were no administrative or criminal sanctions against those responsible for the excessive use of force.

In December 2009, the Chinese government responded to the recommendation of the Committee against Torture, stating that it had completely closed the case of the "political turmoil at the turn of the spring and summer of 1989", and emphasized that it was necessary and correct to take timely and decisive measures at that time. The Chinese government also believes that describing June 4th as a "democracy movement" distorts the anti-government nature of the incident, and believes that such comments are not in line with the mandate of the Committee against Torture.

However, regarding the number of casualties, due to the Chinese government’s refusal to provide more information on the incident, the data is blurred and there are multiple versions. Estimates of the death toll alone range from more than a hundred to tens of thousands. On June 6, 1989, officials of the State Council of the People's Republic of China held a press conference. Spokesman Yuan Mu stated that "preliminary statistics" included military soldiers, university students, illegal elements and people who killed by manslaughter, and nearly 300 people died. Yuan Mu also mentioned that 5,000 non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the People's Liberation Army were injured, while 2,000 civilians were injured, including rioters and onlookers. According to the Beijing police investigation, civilians killed in Beijing "include university professors, technicians, government officials, factory workers, small private business owners, retired workers, high school students and elementary school students, etc. There are 9 years old". Since the Chinese government held a press conference on June 6, the actual death toll of the June 4 incident and the casualties in Tiananmen Square have been continuously debated. There are sayings that "all the dead were outside Tiananmen Square" and different dates. The reason is that after the Chinese government launched a military crackdown, it continued to control the release of any information; after that, research on related topics in China was strictly prohibited, so that the actual number of deaths and injuries is still unclear today. Casualty estimates from various sources also vary widely, with claims ranging from no deaths to thousands.

According to the information provided in the "State Council Bulletin of the People's Republic of China" (No. 11, 1989), dozens of people were killed and more than 6,000 were injured in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the armed police, and the police; more than 3,000 civilians were injured and more than 200 died. Including 36 college students, medical staff, and the masses. The number of deaths reported overseas is generally significantly higher than that reported on the mainland. In 2014, declassified documents from the White House showed that about 10,454 people were killed and 40,000 were injured. The White House report cited internal Zhongnanhai documents provided by sources in the martial law forces. At the end of 2017, documents declassified by the National Archives of the United Kingdom showed that a member of the State Council of China (the name was blacked out in the file) stated that the Tiananmen incident in 1989 caused at least 10,000 civilian deaths, which is currently the highest number.

On June 21, 1989, Ji Sidao mentioned in the "New York Times" column that it is difficult to confirm the actual number of casualties due to the lack of physical evidence, but also mentioned that "a reasonable number should be about 50 soldiers or policemen died, and 400 Up to 800 civilians were killed". U.S. Ambassador to China Li Jieming said that diplomats from the U.S. State Department saw the army open fire on unarmed people, and employees of the U.S. Embassy in China also went to the scene to collect evidence that the troops killed people. After visiting these hospitals near Beijing, they believed that Hundreds of people were shot. Ding Zilin and Zhang Xianling, whose children were killed in this incident, co-founded the Tiananmen Mothers Movement and continued to try to investigate the family members of the deceased and record the relevant information of the deceased; , 187 people were proposed in 2005, 195 people were proposed in 2010, and a total of 202 people were confirmed in August 2011. In the data of the deceased collected by the Tiananmen Mothers Movement, in addition to the people who died directly due to the incident, there are also 4 people who committed suicide and those who were killed due to the protests after June 4th, who are currently named.

On the other hand, according to Wu Renhua's research on martial law enforcement actions, only 15 soldiers were confirmed to have died because they were killed, excluding security personnel. Among the 15 military personnel whose cause of death has been confirmed, 6 soldiers were killed because the truck they were riding on overturned and the vehicle body was subsequently burned; a photographer belonging to the propaganda unit of the 39th Army was not wearing uniform. was shot; and on July 4 of the same year, a platoon leader of the 24th Army died of a heart attack. The cause of death of the remaining 7 military personnel, Wu Renhua believes, should be that they were killed during the mission while clearing out the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

In addition, there are still demonstrators casualties in various parts of China. Due to the lack of local journalists, there are no special records, so it is difficult to estimate. However, according to Amnesty International's investigation, at least 300 people were killed in Chengdu on June 5. Local troops in Chengdu used shock grenades, batons, bayonets and electric shock batons to attack civilians. Hospitals cannot accept students or provide ambulance services, indirectly leading to an increase in the number of deaths. Tianfu Square in Chengdu is therefore also known as the "Tiananmen" of Chengdu.

It is generally believed that the vast majority of shooting incidents occurred outside Tiananmen Square. There were also reports that after the students left Tiananmen Square, the military continued to open fire on the students near the Beijing Concert Hall. At the press conference held by the Chinese government on June 6, Zhang Gong, the military spokesman, insisted that no people were shot and killed in Tiananmen Square, and the army did not use tanks to crush people in the square.

Chi Haotian, the deputy commander of the martial law troops who was in charge of overseeing the implementation during the clearing, insisted that no one died in Tiananmen Square when he visited the United States in 1996. In contrast, the "massacre" in Tiananmen Square was widely reported by Western news media. Chai Ling said that after tanks entered Tiananmen Square, they ran over tents and killed students who refused to leave. Some students who evacuated from the square believed that some people were killed because they stayed near the Monument to the People's Heroes. The military then dispatched helicopters to clear Tiananmen Square, leading skeptics to believe that the Chinese government was trying to cover up the massacre in the square.

But Hou Dejian, Pan Wen and other people who were also staying at the monument said that although gunshots were heard in Tiananmen Square, they did not see any large-scale gun shooting against the demonstrators, or tanks crushing the crowd. Situation happens.

Chen Xitong, the mayor of Beijing at the time, was also an important supporter of the belief that there were no dead people in Tiananmen Square. He said that he was in the Great Hall of the People on the square at the time, and saw that the place was cleared peacefully and left, and said that the foreign news report that "Tiananmen Square was bleeding like a river" was not true.

When the U.S. State Department made an internal summary of the incident, it mentioned: "The massacre occurred on Chang'an Avenue and other major arterial roads in Beijing, not in Tiananmen Square itself." These statements made the reporter judge based on the available evidence and concluded that the night of June 3 As of the early morning of June 4, no people were killed in Tiananmen Square. In the diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks, Gallo, a Chilean diplomat who stayed in the northeast corner of Tiananmen Square from the evening of June 3 to the early morning of June 4, informed the staff of the US embassy that they did not witness the massacre in the square. Shooting, during which only sporadic gunfire was heard. However, another diplomatic telegram mentioned that the mother of a soldier who performed the mission of clearing the field learned from her son that the troops she belonged to were arranged in the southeast corner of Tiananmen Square at that time, and that they used machine guns to shoot and killed many civilians. The telegram also mentioned that This soldier is a Christian. Although the cable stated that it could not verify the authenticity of the source, it was still treated as an eyewitness report by the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai.