4 June makes the security forces in China somewhat uneasy. Especially in Hong Kong where, in the past, there were large memorial meetings to remind people of 4 June 1989. When the military and police moved against those who had been protesting publicly for over a month in Beijing. 

However in 1989, students from colleges and universities, first in China’s capital. Initiated protests after the death on 15 April 1989 of the former General Secretary of the Communist Party, Hu Yaobang. Who was considered a liberal reformer. 

The protest movement spread over a number of weeks to most major cities. Students made numerous demands, among them were calls for an end to government corruption, for increased funding for education, and for freedom of the press.  As the movement went on, the students were increasingly joined by industrial workers.

Hu Yaobang (1986). By dati.camera.it, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

There were differences of opinion within the ruling government circle as to how to deal with the protests.  As the protests continued, there was more and more international media attention, especially as there were an increasing number of journalists in Beijing in advance of the visit of the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev with a large delegation of Soviet officials.

Mikhail Gorbachev in The White House Library, 12/8/1987. By Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Goddess of Democracy.

Students and intellectuals started writing petitions setting out demands that were signed by more and more persons.  The decentralized structure of decision-making among groups in Tienanmen Square allowed for tactical innovation as each group was free to act as it desired and to stress the symbols it wanted. 

Students and intellectuals started writing petitions setting out demands that were signed by more and more persons.  The decentralized structure of decision-making among groups in Tienanmen Square allowed for tactical innovation as each group was free to act as it desired and to stress the symbols it wanted. 

Thus, art school students created the Goddess of Democracy, largely based on the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. The growth in support for the student-led protests drove the more anti-reformist faction in the government to order a crackdown by the military and the police. On 4 June 1989, the tanks started to move into Tiananmen Square.

Replica of the statue “Goddess of Democracy” from the Tiananmen square protests in 1989. Photo taken in Victoria Park, Hong Kong, during the commemoration event for the 21st anniversary of the massacre. Photo by MarsmanRom & Isa Ng, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Goddess of Democracy: 4 June 1989.

Democratization from Below.

Since 1989, there is among the political leadership a generalized fear of “Western Ideas” and modes of life, especially the impact on youth, intellectuals and artists.  “Never again” has been the government’s policy, no highly visible public protests.  “Stability” and “harmony” have been the stated government policy aims, a policy colored by the breakup of the Soviet Union and the fundamental changes in Eastern Europe. 

However, there are an  ever larger number of persons thinking for themselves, creating their own life styles and “thinking outside of the box”. Individualism can be a slow process, and repressive forces watch events closely.  Yet the spirit leading to 4 June lives on.

René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens.