Tiananmen at 35 ~ Perspectives with Neilo

On June 4th, 1989, student-led demonstrations which had been brewing across China for a few months were violently crushed in Beijing by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping in what became widely known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. From the outset, the Chinese Government downplayed the significance of the event and suppressed any discussion of it inside China.

After weeks of protests, hunger strikes and unsuccessful attempts between the demonstrators and the Chinese Government to find a peaceful resolution, the CCP declared martial law on the night of June 3rd and sent their troops onto the streets in Beijing to crush the protests. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundreds to several thousands, with thousands more wounded. The vast majority of those killed were civilians, though a small number of soldiers were also killed.

While the massacre has been downplayed and deleted from the public record in China, it was covered extensively by international media at the time of the event, mostly due to the fact that many foreign media had been visiting China to cover the first China-Soviet summit in 30 years, which included a visit to Beijing by Mikhail Gorbachev. The student protests in Tiananmen Square caused the CCP to lose face during the Soviet visit, and this is thought to have been a major factor in triggering the heavy handed military response to the protests.

The Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989 or June Fourth Incident as it also became known, has been commemorated outside China in the intervening years, most notably in Hong Kong. However, with the return of Hong Kong by the UK to the PRC in 1997, and the subsequent enforcement of the National Security Law, any hint of remembrance has been rigorously stamped out and forbidden.

In nearby Taiwan, where freedom and democracy prevail, the Tiananmen Square Massacre is commemorated each year. 2024 marks the 35th anniversary of the event, and on June 4th, we went along to Liberty Square in Taipei to find out more. We spoke to a number of people who graciously shared their perspectives and insights with us.

Date of recording: June 4th, 2024.