The Messed Up Truth About The Tiananmen Square Massacre

When people rebel, authoritarian governments will try to crack down on them. The history of revolutions is filled with blood, as ordinary citizens have often faced hardship, censorship, and violence when they dare to speak truth to power. Despite this, people in countries across the world have continued to rise up, rebel, and stay vigilant.

Such was the case in China in 1989. The Tiananmen Square massacre, also known as the June 4th incident, was a horrific event wherein the government slaughtered thousands of protesting individuals in cold blood. Perhaps most horrifying of all, though, is that in mainland China, information regarding this mass murder has been suppressed for decades. For the rest of the world, one of the most potent of images the 20th century was that of the so-called "Tank Man," an unidentified Chinese individual who blocked a column of tanks during the protests, but not so in the country it happened. Here is the story of how the protests began, when martial law was declared, and the continuing impact of this historical atrocity on the present day.

In 1989, the spark that ignited the powder keg was the death of Hu Yaobang (pictured), according to the Guardian, a Communist party official, and a leading member of the party's "liberal wing." Hu was beloved by the young and disenfranchised because of his advocacy for social and economic reforms, but this same record of progressiveness made him despised — and punished, via demotion — by his conservative enemies in government. Throughout the eighties, according to the South China Morning Post, Hu earned a reputation as a passionate liberalizer, striving to institute the sorts of democratic reforms that were being demanded by China's young, politically active student population. Hu, as a fierce critic of the Mao Zedong era, tried to dismantle the authoritarian power structures in place, introducing such measures as term limits, age limits, and collective leadership for government officials. Because of this, students considered him one of the few government officials who wasn't corrupt, and he only gained further accolades when he sought justice for the millions who had been persecuted under Mao's reign. 

When Hu died of a heart attack at the age of 73, thousands of mourning students paid their respects by flooding Tiananmen Square, according to the Atlantic. Soon, this mass gathering became a mass protest against the government, whom had undermined Hu's efforts at every turn. As the days went on, these protesters put their collective boots down, and refused to leave Tiananmen Square.

While Tiananmen Square was the focal point of these massive protests, it's important to recognize that the movement took hold all across the city, and not just among the student population (who, by this point, were not attending class anymore). As the protests grew exponentially, according to PBS, the people participating in them became increasingly diverse: Medical professionals, scientists, and even members of the Chinese Navy joined the fight for political reform, marching alongside the students. Old and young, industrial workers and police, the movement had grown to a point where 1 in 10 Beijing residents had joined in, clearly pitting the people against the government's top leaders.

The youth, though, continued to be the leaders of the movement. On April 22nd, 1989, over 100,000 university students gathered outside the Great Hall of the People, and demanded to meet with Premier Li Peng. Li did not answer their call. He was, around the same time period, working to convince the Party elder Deng Xiaoping that the students were trying to overthrow him, and that he needed to act decisively. This put Li and his faction in opposition with the minority faction of General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, who also wanted to curb the protests, but advocated for negotiation with the students rather than shutting them down.

Meanwhile, as April drew to a close, the foreign presses had zoomed in on the situation, and were covering it closely, much to the Chinese government's dismay.

On May 20th, 1989, as explained by Reuters, Li Peng declared martial law. Three days later, 100,000 protesters marched through Beijing, declaring that Li should be removed, and the Tiananmen Square crowds constructed a 33-foot tall tribute to the Statue of Liberty, called the Goddess of Democracy. Soon, these students were labeled "traitorous bandits," and as military involvement escalated, foreign presses tried to capture every moment, for the world to see.

In June, everything exploded. On June 3rd, thousands of Chinese soldiers — armed with guns and tear gas — charged toward Tiananmen Square, and were repelled by students. The following morning, tanks descended on the square, and opened fire on the thousands of unarmed Chinese citizens inside it. The scene was chaotic, as History describes, with countless young students desperately fleeing the gunfire while others tried to defend themselves by setting military vehicles ablaze. 10,000 protesters were arrested, and it is believed that thousands more were slaughtered, by the hand of their own government. This tragic, horrible event, the "June 4th incident," marked the end of the Tiananmen Square protests. 

The world watched, in shock and horror. China's allies and enemies alike decried the military crackdown. China falsely claimed a death toll of 300, claiming that all but 23 of those casualties had been military officers. Deng Xiapoing praised the military, and condemned the murdered students. As for Li Peng, still considered by many as the "Butcher of Beijing," he retained his position until 1998.

Though the Chinese government did everything it could to silence the movement, the world remembers what happened. One image from the massacre, in particular, has remained an enduring symbol of freedom of resistance — and that image, of course, is Tank Man.

"Tank Man," as the New York Times explains, is the name given to the anonymous individual who, following the massacre, was filmed confronting an entire convoy of tanks, on his lonesome, with no weapons. As the video evidence shows, Tank Man stood before the tanks, blocking them. Even when they tried to move around him, or pushed forward and nearly ran him over, he refused to get out of their way. Even today, in the era of social media, nobody has ever pinpointed who, exactly, Tank Man really was ... or what happened to him. Thus, it's unclear whether his courageous act of defiance led to him being imprisoned, murdered, or saved. The Chinese military, government, and police are the only ones who might have answers, but they refuse to give them. 

Decades later, Tank Man's prevalence as a symbol of rebellion has led the Chinese government to censor all images and/or references to him, and in 2019, they even convicted four men for selling bottles that referenced him, labeled with the phrase "Never forget, never give up." Most likely, Tank Man's true identity will never be revealed to the public, but his actions will always be remembered, and continue to inspire others.

When the Tiananmen Square massacre occurred, the world had to respond. Sadly, many found these reactions to be deeply lacking. 

Certainly, as Foreign Policy writes, the international community quickly condemned the Chinese government's violence. After being pressed by congress, U.S. President George H.W. Bush even imposed an embargo on arms sales to China. Behind the scenes, though, the Bush administration also sent officials to meet with PRC leadership, mere months after the massacre, to reassure China that they wanted to maintain strong ties. Bush believed, as outlined by the Diplomat, that the future stability of the Asia-Pacific region depended on strong bilateral trade relations between the U.S. and China, and pushed aggressively to keep the two nations close, a decision he'd later be hammered on for during the 1992 election.

Now, how should the U.S. have reacted? Your argument there, as Psychology Today points out, probably depends on your foreign policy stance, since one doesn't have to look far to find examples of how badly foreign interventionism can go. Regardless, the U.S.'s failure to truly condemn China's actions did set a terrifying precedent, which continues to this day: While China has grown immensely in regard to power and influence, the human rights scandals have not ceased. As said by Bao Tong, an imprisoned ally of Zhao Ziyang, "There are miniature Tiananmens in China every day, in counties and villages where people try to show their discontent and the government sends 500 policemen to put them down."