Misblog

China is still managing the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square student massacre fallout after two decades. It’s not getting any easier or showing signs of going away anytime soon—notwithstanding the determined efforts of China’s agile, acrobatic, and adapting leadership. A recent posthumous biography on the former Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, Prisoner of the State: the secret journal of Zhao Ziyang includes material secretly recorded by Zhao—tapes that subsequently circumvented China’s ubiquitous surveillance, censors, and near routine house arrests. In the biography Zhao, describes efforts to promote China's economic, legal, and political reforms, in addition to unsuccessful efforts to diffuse the Tiananmen students' protest.

WorldCat

Zhao's reward—arbitrary, unceremonious, unconstitutional, and illegal sacking by Deng Xiaoping. Zhao never one naïve enough to think his position as China’s general secretary was protected by China’s constitution must have known he had simply pushed reforms beyond Deng’s willingness to push China. In fact one suspects Deng appointed Zhao precisely because he had “too many western ideas”—when those ideas smashed into the “leftist wall”, instead of continuing to scale the wall Deng found it expedient to sack Zhao.

After 16 years of house arrest and death Zhao is speaking from his grave to say I was right then and I’m right now¹. More than Zhao’s tapes are needed to decide if his sacking was beneficial or lost time and opportunity for China? What can be decided is that China has indeed traveled a reform path similar to that envisioned by Zhao many years ago. Albeit a path with more torturous twists and turns—some have described it as balancing on a ball while juggling.

Indeed, price, legal and political reform is staring at China now just as it did when Zhao was general secretary—and China’s leaders are still on the ball juggling! One wonders why China's leadership doesn't simply declare:

And get on with implementing the price, legal, and political reforms envisioned by Zhao and by many of China’s current reform minded dissidents? (see How Will China Change If Dissidents Are Silenced for China's recent "Charter 08".)

Blog:

• NYT Room for Debate, China’s New Rebels

Web:

• Simon & Schuster, Prisoner of the State The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang

YouTube:

-----notes-----

1. Prisoner of the State is a double translation—from audio to writing and Chinese to English. It's compelling and required reading for all China hands and anybody with more than a tourist’s interest in China.

The unfortunate and unnecessary brutal Tiananmen Square student massacre is only a small, but significant part of the book.

Much has already been written about the book (in no particular order):

• Times Online, Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang
• Economist, Chinese whispers
• Epoch Times, Prisoner of the State
• WP, China's Zhao Details Tiananmen Debate
• Intellasia Online, Prisoner of the State: A democratic destiny in China. Contains excerpts from the book—heads-up, includes photos, one of which shows Tiananmen student corpses lying among tank twisted bicycles.
• WP, Secret Memoir Offers Look Inside China’s Politics
• NYT, Secret Memoir Offers Look Inside China’s Politics
• NYT, Openness in China About Memoir Proves Short-Lived
• Time, The Secret Memoir of a Fallen Chinese Leader
• CDT, China Ex-censor Claims Key Tiananmen Memoirs Role
• CDT, Xu Youyu (徐友渔): From 1989 to 2009: 20 Years of Evolution in Chinese Thought (1)
• CDT, Xu Youyu (徐友渔): From 1989 to 2009: 20 Years of Evolution in Chinese Thought (2/2)
• Standpoint, The Long Shadow of Tiananmen

Those unfamiliar with the Tiananmen Square student massacre may find these videos helpful:

• It happened in Tiananmen Square - 31 May 09 - Part 1:
• It happened in Tiananmen Square - 31 May 09 - Part 2

• Tiananmen Square Massacre:
• Digital Archives: Canada Broadcast Corporation footage of Tiananmen Square Massacre, 1989

• Frontline, The Tank Man

  

or one of the numerous books:

• China History Tiananmen Square Incident, 1989.

  Readers might find it helpful to begin with Zhang Liang (pseudonymous), The Tiananmen Papers 2001 since it details the voluminous amount of information (some very inaccurate most biased) flowing into (and out of) Zhongnanhai during the months of Tiananmen Square events.

  May 17 1989 (Meeting with Elders: Deng Xiaoping, Yang Shangkun, Bo Yibo; and Standing Committee: Zhao Ziyang, Li Peng, Qiao Shi, Hu Qili, Yao Yilin;

  Deng Xiaoping: "...After thinking long and hard about this, I've concluded that we should bring in the People's Liberation Army and declare martial law in Beijing—more precisely, in Beijing's urban districts... (meeting reconvenes at 8pm Deng is absent)...

  Zhao Ziyang: My duties must end here today; I cannot continue to serve. My view of the nature of the student movement differs from those of Comrade Xiaoping and from those of most of you here. And if I can't carry on, it will make things difficult for the rest of you on the Standing Committee. So I'm asking to resign."--Tiananmen Papers--

  See also Michael Oksenberg, Beijing Spring 1989: Confrontation and Conflict the Basic Documents.

• Tiananmen Rememberance Links:

  • NYT, Bullets Over Beijing . Nicholas Kristof reflects on his reporting from Tiananmen Square on June 3-4, 1989 (also includes several audio commentary files narrating a sequence of Tiananmen Square protest events.)

    • China Global Times, Prosperity tangible along Chang'an Ave. This gives an idea of how China is beginning to come to grips with their Tiananmen Square student massacre.

      Amazingly, it sounds similar to the logic some are using to justify our Guantanamo torture—we did it, but it worked (one referring to preserving economic prosperity the other security)!

      Nevertheless, it is welcoming that an online China publication is mentioning June 3-4, 1989. Even if it focuses on the chard remains of a policeman and ignores the suppression surrounding the initial prosperity on Chang'an Avenue—you have to begin somewhere.

  • BBC, 20 years on: Memories of Tiananmen.

  • Reuters, U.S. calls for China to account for Tiananmen dead. The United States called on China on Wednesday to give a public accounting of those killed and missing as a result of its crushing the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in Beijing two decades ago.

    "We would prefer to see a China that's prepared to learn from history rather than trying to hide it,...This [non-accounting] is inconsistent with the actions of a great power.

    ...A China that has made enormous progress economically and is emerging to take its rightful place in global leadership should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing - both to learn and to heal. This anniversary provides an opportunity for Chinese authorities to release from prison all those still serving sentences in connection with the events surrounding June 4, 1989,"--Reuters quoting State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley--

  • ZDNet, On eve of Tianamen anniversary, China blocks Twitter, Flickr, Bing

  • VOA, US Urges China to Openly Examine Tiananmen Square Events.

    It’s incorrect to suppose that rightfully crediting China's Herculean economic progress is synonymous with crediting public propaganda progress in areas of imbalance.

    Great nations are thus because they've adopted economic, legal, and political systems capable of independent, constant, and self correction—counteracting excesses and imbalances.

  • WSJ, Prosperity Can't Erase Tiananmen
  • CSM, Tianamen's legacy of boldness
  • Time, China Cracks Down Ahead of Tiananmen Anniversary — for How Long?
  • Newsweek, When We Talk About Tiananmen
  • BBC, Audio slideshow: Tiananmen Square