all morning i’ve been sucked into reading about zhao ziyang. he was the head of the communist party during the 1989 uprising in tianamen square. the events of tianamen have always fascinated me. if i haven’t made this abundantly clear until now, i have an affinity for direct action. but back to zhao and tianamen square.
the japan times has posted an interesting (albeit brief) editorial biography of zhao. he lived an interesting life. he joined the communist party in the thirties and stayed true to it even after they executed his own father in the late fourties. during the cultural revolution he served four years in a labor camp for being outspoken. after his release he served the party as head of the schizuan province, where he put his reform beliefs in practice. in 1980 he was appointed premier and was put in charge of guiding china’s economy, then in 1987 was promoted to general secretary:
His reign as general secretary was a heady moment for China, for Zhao turned out to be as much a political as an economic reformer. In his vision, the CCP would withdraw from its control over much of the state. He advocated greater democratization and the rule of law. While he was in charge, the party refrained from interfering in the administration of law and it lifted many controls over literature and the arts. He proposed fundamental reforms to how enterprises are organized in China, changes that would have further diminished the CCP’s control of the economy.
His vision of the party’s role in China doomed him. As protesters occupied Tiananmen Square, [...] Zhao fought hardliners within the Chinese leadership against military intervention. He lost and was dismissed from office.
during the 1989 pro-democracy protests, zhao made his last public appearance in tianamen square. from newsday:
Zhao’s downfall with the Chinese government followed his May 19, 1989, visit to students in Tiananmen Square. He pleaded with them to leave, warning them the government was planning to remove them. Days later, soldiers opened fire on protesters throughout Beijing, killing hundreds and perhaps thousands of people.
Zhao was accused of “splitting the party” by supporting the pro-democracy demonstrators and purged from the party on June 24, 1989. He was placed under house arrest soon after.
he remained under house arrest until his death last monday. traditionally, a former communist leader’s death would be marked by announcements in the media, public mourning, and a state funeral. but in zhao’s case, the state-run media issued a four line obituary which neglected to mention his former role in the party. a news blackout is preventing papers, tv, and radio from mentioning his name in mainland china. however, news has slowly spread around beijing and mourners have tried to pay their respects at zhao’s residence:
In a Beijing courtyard house dating from the Ming Dynasty, a small, grey-haired woman bowed deeply to a photograph of a man who was once the leader of China.
Her gesture of respect was also an act of defiance against the Beijing government. This house belonged to Zhao Ziyang, the man in the photograph, and has now become the venue of an extraordinary wake. [...]
The government imposed a stringent blackout on news of his demise, fearing a spate of reformist protests. A dozen or so security agents controlled access to the narrow alley leading to his house, his prison. Beijing wanted him to be as isolated in death as he was in his final years.
Even so, a trickle of visitors made it past the cordon. At the doorway – where a bronze plaque marks the house as a cultural relic – they stepped across the wooden threshold and walked past a long line of white and black wreaths to stand at a makeshift shrine built in Mr Zhao’s honour.
Some mourners were relatives of Mr Zhao, some were ranking members of the party he once led and a few were relatives of Tiananmen Square victims, killed when the People’s Army turned its guns on its own.
One woman, too frightened to give her name but still grieving for the son she lost then, said that Mr Zhao had symbolised the hope that China could still adopt the reforms the students had demanded.
“Zhao Ziyang knew that the people could never be served in a correct manner without democracy,” she said. “Since his downfall, the party has proved that belief correct by not facing up to its failures in government and its corruption. I have come here because he could have changed that.”
it’s dangerous to speak like that in china, a country that continues to be one of the worst human-rights violators on the planet. they’re also fond of revising their own history. while the woman above clearly remembers tianamen square, the next generation of chinese – educated in state run schools – seem hardly aware of it, even at beijing university (where the protests were conceived):
But for younger Chinese, who did not witness those events, Zhao is a virtual nonentity, banished from history books and the state-controlled media. At Beijing University, a focal point of political dissent in 1989, his death scarcely seemed to register with the generation of students who were children when the massacre happened.[...]
Asked if any event in the news had seemed significant this week, a student replied, You mean the Australian Open? When his visitor gave him a quizzical look, he smiled almost imperceptibly. Oh, you mean Zhao, he said.[...]
Roger Jie, 21, a junior, laughed when asked if politics played a major role in campus life. Very nonpolitical, he said. Neutralized, in fact, pretty neutral. Students are used to not talking about it.
Jie, who grew up in Guangzhou, said Tiananmen was rarely discussed at his high school. Now, he said, the passage of time and economic progress in China have made Tiananmen seem less relevant to his life. It was long ago, and there hasnt been much news about Zhao for 10 years or longer, he said. Asked if he now felt free in China, Jie said: To a degree, it is free enough for me, he said.
Xu Youyu, a liberal political theorist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the blackout of information about Tiananmen meant that many younger people were ignorant about what happened in 1989.
In interviews with students at an undergraduate dorm, several were not aware that Zhao had been general secretary of the Communist Party or that he had been under house arrest. Other students offered a softer gloss on the governments role in the crackdown.
Many people left safely, said a 21-year-old student from Anhui Province who asked not to be identified.Did the soldiers fire on the students? Its really not clear, the student said. I heard the soldiers fired back when they were attacked.
His friend chimed in. I dont care too much about politics, he said. What does he care about? Soccer, he answered.
while the mourning in mainland china remains lowkey – due to both the news blackout and the police crackdown – it’s a different situation in hong kong, where residents still enjoy some civil liberties leftover from british rule. it was zhao himself who signed the handover treaty with the britain:
When Britain’s Margaret Thatcher signed the 1984 agreement handing Hong Kong over to China, the man she signed it with was one of China’s brightest lights, reform-minded premier Zhao Ziyang. It was a moment of great hope, with lots of pride and a sense that China, after years under the yoke of Mao Zedong, would become a forward-looking, less extreme state. Yet official photos of that signing now blur or diminish Zhao, or crop him out entirely.
in hong kong, mourners held a public vigil. the views were quite a contrast when compared to the students in beijing:
Holding candles, mourners in a downtown Hong Kong park bowed three times toward a portrait of Zhao in keeping with Chinese tradition and observed a minute of silence. A makeshift tribute area for the reformist leader who died Monday in Beijing was inundated with wreaths.
“He’s a hero of the Chinese people. We will always miss him,” said teacher Ng Ping-lam, 56, in a trembling voice.
Organizers said 15,000 turned out for the vigil. Police spokesman Trish Leung put the crowd size at 10,000.[...]
Many parents brought their young children to Friday’s vigil.
“I respect him a lot for standing up to fight for the students,” said housewife Chung Hau-yee, 40. Her 11-year-old daughter, Soo Sin-yee, said: “He opposed killing the students. He’s a good leader.”
“I am very sad that a person with such great moral courage has left us. We can only hope that we will have more leaders like him in China,” said another participant, Simon Kan, 55, a law firm employee.
Many who attended the memorial called on China’s government to bring to justice those responsible for the Tiananmen massacre.
Activists laid a wreath at the Chinese government’s local offices and lawmakers observed a brief silence for Zhao on Wednesday despite a warning from China not to do so.
for the first time since the handover, hong kong’s parliament came to a standstill when lawmakers stood to observe a moment of silence for zhao in defiance of the government in beijing:
Now Beijing’s effort to silence discussion about Zhao at home has jumped the mainland’s borders and landed in the heart of Hong Kong. The city is the only place on Chinese soil where Zhao can be publicly remembered. But a request Tuesday for a minute of silence for Zhao in the parliament here was ruled unconstitutional by the assembly president – outraging pro-democracy lawmakers. Wednesday they stood quietly for a minute, anyway. That caused pro-Beijing members to walk out, shutting down the legislature for the first time ever.[...]
“I don’t understand this ruling at all. As far as expressive politics in Hong Kong are concerned, this [moment of silence] is an act of humanity and basic decency,” says Margaret Ng, a lawyer and parliamentarian.
the chinese government is handling this situation the way they usually do, via censorhip and revisionism:
Apart from Tuesday’s four-line obituary, no mention of Zhao is heard on state TV or in newspapers. Chinese Internet chat rooms are being monitored and messages regarding Zhao erased. Earlier this week, Chinese hoping to visit and pay respects at Zhao’s home were turned away or asked to register with state police.
Thursday, both the Zhao home and Tiananmen Square were awash in plainclothes security. Police were no longer registering Chinese visiting the home, but a team was inside filming every visitor. Zhao’s aid, Bao Tong, remains under house arrest.
the chinese government also continues to violate basic human rights:
In death, Zhao remains a powerful symbol of opposition to CCP rule. To commemorate his life would honor his vision. To head off protests, the government has cracked down on “intellectuals” known to have sympathized with Zhao’s views, increased the public security presence in Tiananmen Square and played down news of his death. It has censored discussions of Zhao in Internet chat rooms, decided not to hold a public funeral (which his family had refused anyway), and prohibited students from meeting together in his memory.
the entire situation is fascinating and troubling. today, fifteen years after the tianamen massacre, hundreds of students and “revolutionaries” are being held in chinese prisons. students are not taught their history, and the government retains it’s stranglehold on civil liberties and human rights. for this they’re being rewarded with the olympics in 2012 2008. they retain their “most favored nation” trade status with the united states. and last week, british foreign secretary jack straw travelled to beijing to offer britain’s support in lifting EU sanctions imposed on china after the tianamen massacre. if the sanctions are lifted, the EU may legally resume their arms trade with china.
