The blood of the people

- first part -
- second part -

Supporting the hopes of the students and protesters in Tiananmen Square, we find the belief that China could follow the Soviet example. In those years, Gorbachev's perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (transparency) were becoming a reality and seemed to be opening socialism to new forms of democratic participation. It was the Soviet leader's visit to Beijing in mid-May 1989 that gave an important boost to the protests in the square. The students were joined by public officials, merchants, and workers who thus showed their opposition to the communist regime. The Tiananmen Square demonstration was one of the largest and most attended popular demonstrations in the history of China. The students wanted to use the visit to put pressure on the government to implement the requested reforms. Not only did the government refuse any form of dialogue, but it also carefully avoided allowing young people to meet Gorbachev (even visually, the Soviet leader was accompanied inside the buildings of power, preventing him from passing through windows or courtyards that could allow him to see or hear the square).

After the visit – which did not contribute to changing the fate of Chinese internal politics, but nevertheless gave the important announcement of the beginning of the demilitarization of the Sino-Soviet border – Deng began to organize the repression that arrived, ferocious and merciless, a few weeks later. Only one politician at the top of the party, Zhao Ziyang, opposed martial law, who was immediately removed from all office and sentenced to lifelong house arrest. The street demonstrations were therefore considered a mortal threat to the established order that had to be crushed immediately. Even today we do not know the exact number of victims, hundreds or even thousands? Too many families still do not know the fate of many of their loved ones. Above all, the Chinese government has imposed a damnatio memoriae on the events. As if, twenty-five years later, even the memory of those days could undermine the solidity of the regime. Despite the imposed oblivion, over the years something has leaked out, such as the story of General Xu Qinxian, head of the 38th Army Corps. The general refused to shoot the crowd because – in his opinion – the Tiananmen Square protest was a political and not a military problem: young people should be negotiated and not shot at. He was imprisoned for four years and expelled from the army.
From what we know, despite showing doubts about the government's choices, there were very few officers who, like Xu, refused to obey.

And yet, returning every now and then to those grainy images helps us remember the modernity and vitality of a part of Chinese society that today seems to be light years away from the dormant and submissive part of the new great old Xi. Young people who are thinking, passionate, committed, eager for freedom, are a danger to all authoritarian regimes or those aspiring to be so.
Cultivating the conscience of young people must therefore remain a priority for all democracies that want to survive without turning into democrature.

Renato Bonomo
NP November 2024