[Essay Today] Zao Ziyang and the Tiananmen Incident

“On April 4, 1976, as crowds gathered at Tiananmen Square to mourn Zhou Enlai, wreaths were laid around the 'Monument to the People's Heroes,' while slogans and banners criticizing Mao Zedong and Jiang Qing, leaders of the Cultural Revolution faction, appeared. When the Beijing authorities removed the wreaths commemorating Zhou Enlai in the early hours of April 5, young students protested with acts of arson and other demonstrations. The Mao Zedong-Jiang Qing faction deployed three regular army divisions and about 40,000 militia members to Tiananmen Square, violently suppressing the protests, resulting in over 3,000 deaths, injuries, and arrests.” (Parkmungak·Current Affairs Dictionary)

Few Koreans recognize this event as the 'Tiananmen Incident.' Our collective memory more vividly recalls the 1989 Chinese democratization movement known as the 'Tiananmen Incident.' It is considered the 'Second Tiananmen Incident.' On April 15, 1989, following the death of General Secretary Hu Yaobang, protests erupted demanding the restoration of his honor and democratization. University students who remembered Hu Yaobang’s efforts for democracy rose up, calling for the eradication of corruption and bureaucratism. Students from across the country gathered and began a hunger strike sit-in at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square starting May 13.

As time passed, political slogans advocating freedom of the press, political reform, anti-corruption measures, and democratization appeared in the square. Then-Premier Li Peng labeled the protests as “anti-Party and anti-socialist disturbances orchestrated by international hostile forces” and advocated a hardline crackdown. However, then-General Secretary Zhao Ziyang opposed this stance. On May 4, at the Asian Development Bank meeting, Zhao declared, “This protest is a patriotic movement by patriotic students.” He did not stop at declarations but clearly demonstrated his convictions toward history, the people, and politics through his actions.

Zhao described the Tiananmen protests as the “passion of May Fourth.” The May Fourth Movement was an anti-Japanese, anti-imperialist, and anti-feudal revolutionary movement initiated by Beijing students on May 4, 1919. In the early morning of May 19, 1989, Zhao appeared before the protesters, dressed in a worker’s uniform and holding a loudspeaker. With tears in his eyes, he pleaded for the hunger strike to end. “I am sorry, comrades, I have come too late. The situation is very bad. Please leave the square!” The next day, martial law was declared in Beijing.

The Chinese Communist Party’s perception was far from Zhao’s sincere intentions. Deng Xiaoping emerged at the center of this historical turmoil. Defying senior party elders who advised against it, he ordered troops to fire on the protesters on June 4. “Even if 200,000 die, if 20 years of peace and stability can be achieved, it cannot be helped.” Tanks and armored vehicles pushed in, suppressing the protests within two days. According to unofficial estimates, the bloodshed resulted in about 5,000 deaths and 30,000 injuries.

Zhao was purged at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee on June 23. He was investigated on charges of rebellion and placed under house arrest until his death on January 17, 2005. Even after his death, the Chinese Communist Party held his funeral privately without rehabilitation. A giant who rose to General Secretary with only a middle school education, once regarded as Deng Xiaoping’s successor due to his bold economic reforms and opening policies, disappeared into the annals of history. The Tiananmen Incident remains a stain on modern Chinese history.

Heo Jin-seok, poet and professor at Korea National Sport University