In the History 12 course of PLP, it is about that time of year to blitz through nearly 100 years on history in around 2 months. In true PLP fashion of promoting learning through interest, the teachers have used a song. Its contents spell out nearly every major event that has happened in the 1900’s. This is quite incredible when the song makes sense just by spouting out headlines. From this song, we were to choose one of the headlines and answer a question that we would come up with. I decided to pick the line “China’s under martial law” from the song.
First of all, I believe this to be in direct reference to the Tienanmen Square protests of 1989. I protest for more democracy in the Chinese government by students from university. In a nutshell, the Tienanmen Square protests was caused by a myriad of reasons but the biggest of them all was students of China being exposed to the good side of democracy after suffering through economic and social hardships. Matched with the death of a prominent proponent of democracy Hu Yaobang which many students believed in a more democratic China admired to protest. Over a million people gathered into Tienanmen Square to protest. After two weeks and insistent calls for dispersal by the Chinese government, martial law was declared. Soon after, the military rolled in and pacified anyone who got in their way of dispersing the protest. People who stood in the way of the army were gunned down or rolled over by tanks.
What I really want to explore about this topic is how both the west and the Chinese turned this event into a political tool to deface each other. And finally, the unfortunate side effect it has.
The Chinese interpretation:
Immediatly after the attacks, the Chinese government gave its own perception of the events that transpired. They spoke of men armed with molotov cocktails destroying chinese vehicles and the eventual killing of these individuals out of self defense of the Chinese army. Key words are used like “Counter revolutionary” to describe the students. This was probably done to label the people who were killed as an outsider to the revolution that is communist china. Also used to describe the west, the word was also used to shove some of the blame of the riot over to the west. Another way the Chinese perceived the event was how they turned the west’s interpretation on its head. In the infamous tank man video featuring a lone student standing infront of a column of chinese tanks. While the West declared this as a stand against the iron fist that is the chinese government, the chinese government had a different idea. Using the rest of the video which showed the column of tanks trying to drive around the man, it showed the restraint that the chinese army supposedly used and instead puts the student in the role of the one getting in the way of the right which is the government.
The above video show the Chinese tanks trying to maneuver around the man to avoid his death.
The West’s interpretation:
The west seemed to want to do at that time was see how the riot ended in a negative way. Deaths were either inflated or truthfully reported as in the thousands while the Chinese state reported a couple hundred. The west interpreted this as what seemed to be another Woodstock, a band of people gathering for a common goal of promoting their vision of life. I believe this is why the west usually condemns this event and goes to varying lengths like portraying the tank man video their way in order to promote their way of life.
A quote from the US State Department sums up the views of the event very well.
How the GPRC [government of the People’s Republic of China] decides to deal with those of its citizens involved in recent events in China is, of course, an internal affair. How the USG [United States of America government] and the American people view that activity is, equally, an internal affair. Both will be governed by the traditions, culture, and values peculiar to each.
-Declassified USA State Department document entitled “Themes” dated June 29, 1989.
In terms of the side affect that the two parties have caused, it is how the truth seems to be ever changing. I have determined this after speaking with many people from both parties. Even Chinese nationals have different interpretations of what conspired during the event, some take the hardliner Chinese government view. Others mix and match from both sides to form an answer which is acceptable because the facts it contains are from both sides. All in all, because of these sides agendas, the truth will probably be hidden and completely forgotten before long.
In conclusion, both sides did their best to skew the event their way to push a political agenda. The Chinese did it to keep the severity of the event down, the West used it to step on communism and further promote democracy in the east. The truth will never be told because at this point, no one really knows anymore what is right or wrong in the stories people give each other. This is all due to the West and the Chinese validating their contradicting stories.