28 years ago today: the Tiananmen Square incident

Today, the 4th of June, is the day typically remembered as the anniversary of Tiananmen Square Incident (or Tiananmen Square Massacre, if you’re so inclined), when the Chinese government violently suppressed a largely peaceful protest of reform advocates in Beijing.

(Too much text for you? Scroll to the end for some videos.)

In 1976, Mao Zedong, leader of the People’s Republic of China since its establishment in 1949, finally died. In his wake, reformers such as Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang came to power; though Mao’s face is still printed on Chinese money, they really should use Deng and Hu’s faces instead since reformers like them are the only reason China became the economic powerhouse it is today.

Though the economy suffered growing pains after the reforms, many in the public supported them and hoped to see liberalization on the side of social policies as well. Though Hu’s liberal ideas eventually got him kicked out of any meaningful political position in 1987, he remained very popular, especially among idealistic college students.

Hu died in April of 1989. The government was somewhat surprised when an estimated 100,000 people attended his funeral on April 22nd in the historic Tiananmen Square in Beijing - and then annoyed when many of the celebrants stuck around in the square afterwards, demanding further liberalizations, an end to the rampant corruption in Chinese politics, and a clearing of Hu’s sullied name. Though the crowd size would swell and shrink between 10,000 and 300,000 people in the following weeks, it never fully disbursed, and the mostly festive atmosphere of the protest included everything from a 10-meter-tall statue called the Goddess of Liberty to Ghandi-inspired hunger strikes, all aimed at getting concessions from the government and grabbing the attention of the world’s press.

Many hard-liners in the Chinese Communist Party saw the protest as seditious and fought to have it disbanded, but liberals in the party fought back and encouraged dialogue with the protesters. However, eventually Deng Xiaoping, Mao’s successor, though a reformer himself, took the side of the hard-liners and moved to instate martial law in Beijing - essentially a military occupation to clear out the protesters.

On the night of June 3, the People’s Liberation Army began moving into Beijing towards the Square in trucks, armored personnel carriers and even tanks. Troops occasionally opened fire into a stunned crowd; at times, the less non-violent-resistance parts of the crowd fought back and even occasionally disabled vehicles and captured or killed troops, but they were simply outgunned, and by the early morning they were surrounded and forcibly dispersed.

Official government numbers for the number of deaths during the incident cite 218 civilians killed versus 23 PLA members; unofficial numbers have civilian deaths as high as 2600 and soldiers and police at 50.

Here is a contemporary news clip from the BBC about the incident. Note that there is gunfire in the air even as the reporter speaks to the camera. Ask yourself if you could do that without ducking for cover and/or voiding your bowels. (Queasiness warning: contains blood.)

The following day, on the 5th, American photojournalist Jeff Widener captured the infamous Tank Man photograph. As a line of tanks tried to leave the square, a single man blocked their path, stepping back in front of the lead tank as it tried to swerve around him. Note that this is the day after the PLA had done most of its damage; for all this guy knew, those tanks were just going to roll right over him. Do you think you could have cojones like his? Here’s a short documentary about the events that lead to that photograph. It contains a lot of great video, including some from before the crackdown.

You can find that photo as well as a handful of others taken during the protest and its aftermath on Widener’s site.

Here’s a short summary of the full story from an anti-government group called China Uncensored, including how the government has censored discussion of the event to this day. (Queasiness warning: Contains scenes of blood and gore.)

Finally, I should mention that, now that Steemit contains this “harmful information,” it’s possible it may be blocked by the PRC. I understand that it’s probably not desirable for a cryptocurrency to be blocked from use by the world’s most populous nation, but this is a risk Steemit takes by being a data storage system as well as currency. On the other hand, seeing as how Steemit already hosts teh nekkid gurly pix, it’s probably just a matter of time anyway.