Tienanmen Massacre – China’s Obsession With Control

Tiananmen Square is a place of cultural significance in Chinese history, as it is witness to a number of events. Tiananmen Square massacre, also known as the June Fourth massacre, depicts the brute power of PLA. When the military presence failed to quell the protests, the Chinese soldiers fired live rounds instantly killings hundreds and thousands of protesters. It came to an end due to a bloody crackdown by the Chinese Government on 4th June 1989.

The Beginning: The real build-up to the protests started somewhere in the 1970s when China decided to change its economic model from State-owned to private enterprise. The protests by students which included a wide range of demands viz., democracy, rule of law and economic liberalization, got a fillip from Fang Lizhi, an Astrophysicist, who returned from the US in 1986. He is supposed to be the brain behind this pro-democracy movement.
In no time, the protests spread like a wildfire across cities like Beijing & Shanghai, with Tiananmen being the rallying point.

Growing support for the protests made the Communist Govt of China nervous which in turn blamed the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Mr. Hu Yaobang, who, in a way, symbolized the reform of the student movement in China. Mr. Hu Yaobang was removed from his post in 1987 and eventually passed away in 1989. Mr. Yaobang’s death fuelled the protests further and the protestors demanded pro-democracy measures
like freedom from the communist regime, free-market enterprise, etc.

With the protest participants increasing by the day, the Communists are known for their ruthlessness, their leader Deng Xiaoping blamed the protestors of conspiring to overthrow Communism. With crowds swelling to more than a million, Deng Xiaoping ordered the troops to open fire on the unarmed protestors. The endearing image of the protests is the Man who stood bravely in front of the marauding Chinese troops. There are conflicting reports of the man being executed in 14 days whereas other sources claim he was shot dead.

Current Scenario: Though today the Communist Govt in China makes all the right noises for greater global acceptability, it practices zero tolerance for organized opposition. The Communist Govt in China is so brutal that despite more than 30 years since the protests, it is believed, thousands are still languishing in Chinese prisons, for Tiananmen related sentences. The unofficial death count is supposed to be over 10,000. Even up to this day, the Chinese Communist Party sees the 1989 uprising as an existential threat and it nips in the bud, any independent criticism.

The freedom under Communist rule can be understood by the fact that even after 31 years, the official Chinese Communist policy is strictly banning the commemorations of the event.
In a way, Tiananmen is proof-positive of the belief that Communist regimes, anywhere in the world, is still a repressive dictatorship. Thus, Tiananmen which means “Gates of Heavenly Peace” virtually turned into a graveyard on this day, 31 years ago.