Remembering Tienanmen Square June 1989 and the courage of those who defied Chinese tanks

Photograph by Stuart Franklin/Magnum.

The photo on the right was taken from a different vantage point and shows the man in the background preparing to confront the tanks (AP Photo Terril Jones)

Today is the 25th anniversary of the brutal Chinese crackdown in Tienanmen Square.

The iconic image of that event is the photo of a single unidentified man holding two shopping bags who steps in defiance of a line of army tanks heading to Tienanmen Square.

All through the months of April and May 1989 Chinese students and pro-democracy activists protested in Beijing and other parts of the country. The protests were triggered by the death of Hu Yaobang, a liberal reformer, who was deposed after a power struggle with hardliners over the direction of political and economic reform in China.

In early May, the protestors occupied Tienanmen Square and demanded government accountability and greater democratic and press freedom. The students and pro-democracy protesters filled the square for weeks, initiating hunger strikes and other forms of protest activities.

On the nights of the 3rd and 4th June 1989 the Chinese Government enforced martial law. 

Massive troop and tank movements around the square began, concluding in an all-out assault that culminated in retaking Tienanmen Square and surrounding areas. 

Thousands of protesters and citizens heading to join the protest in Tienanmen Square were killed and injured after the People's Liberation Army opened fire on unarmed and peaceful protesters.

this photo shows the same man defying a long line of tanks (by Arthur Tsang)

Riots ensued around the Square and throughout the capital.

The authorities proceeded to carry out mass arrests. Some people were executed and others just disappeared. An estimated 1600 were imprisoned for long periods, and 2 remain in prison 25 years later. Others were politically punished and lost jobs and positions. Many of the student leaders were forced to flee China.

The Tienanmen Square massacre and its aftermath initiated a new era of conservatism in China that continues to this day.

Various slide shows of the 1989 events at Tienanmen Square are here, here and here.

Twenty five years later, the Chinese Government are trying to prevent any mention or discussion of the uprising and the massacres by locking up, charging or harassing artists, scholars, lawyers, bloggers and relatives of victims.

Chinese citizens involved in the uprising and those who try to remember the events of 25 years ago continue to suffer persecution.

Amnesty has recorded the names of Chinese activists targeted by the Chinese authorities in the lead up to the anniversary. This includes scores of detentions and house arrest and people being charged with offences carrying prison terms for holding private memorial gatherings for the dead.

The New York Review of Books has this interview with Hu Jia, who was just 15 at the time he participated in the Tienanmen Square demonstrations. He is currently under house arrest in China over his attempt to organize a commemoration of the massacre protest activities.

The Guardian has this article, featuring interviews with 3 leaders of the 1989 protests who were forced to flee China in 1989.

China and global energy struggles

Michael Klare is a leading commentator, analyst and writer about global resource issues (his work has appeared on this blog before). 

In his latest piece Klare writes that China has overtaken the United States to become the world's number one energy consumer, a development that signals a massive global power shift. Klare argues that China's energy decisions will shape the world into the future:

"If you want to know which way the global wind is blowing (or the sun shining or the coal burning), watch China. That's the news for our energy future and for the future of great-power politics on planet Earth. Washington is already watching - with anxiety........."

"Because energy is tied to so many aspects of the global economy, and because doubts are growing about the future availability of oil and other vital fuels, the decisions China makes regarding its energy portfolio will have far-reaching consequences.  As the leading player in the global energy market, China will significantly determine not only the prices we will be paying for critical fuels but also the type of energy systems we will come to rely on.  More importantly, China’s decisions on energy preferences will largely determine whether China and the United States can avoid becoming embroiled in a global struggle over imported oil and whether the world will escape catastrophic climate change".

Photos of the dark side of China's economic growth

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photos by Lu Guang from China Hush













Lu Guang is a freelance Chinese documentary photographer who has produced some of the most remarkable and distressing photos I have seen. (you can see a selection of his photos here)

His photos show the dark side of the Chinese economic miracle, that is the human and environmental consequences of a booming economy. The photos are from the rural and industrial heartland of China, a landscape rarely seen by Westerners.

Orville Schell has written a piece in the latest New York Review of Books about Lu Guang's photos, pointing out that the Chinese authorities are so fearful of the power of his images that his work is censored and he is forced to work under an alias. Lu Guang was recently in the USA to receive a photographic award which recognizes photographers for their deep commitment to documenting the human condition. Schell concludes with this:

Lu’s photos can do no more than hint at the unseeable, phantasmagoric, but even more menacing threat of climate change that is quietly and ineluctably stealing over the world.

Lu Guang's photos are a salutatory reminder that this state's prosperity, which is built on the supply of massive amounts of iron ore and other natural resources to feed China's rapid economic and industrial growth, comes at an immense cost in human suffering and environmental degradation in China.