Tiananmen Square

What is Tiananmen Square?

Tiananmen Square is a 100-acre, flat expanse of concrete before the Forbidden City with Mao Tse-tung's mausoleum in the middle along with the Monument to the People's Heroes. It was built by Mao for the people, yet it is not a people-friendly place: There are [Page 1382]no benches, no trees, and no street sellers. Giant lamp-posts bear huge speakers and swiveling video cameras while plainclothes police pose as commercial photographers who will take your picture and then mail it to you; by doing this, they not only have your picture, they also have your address. Traffic moves around the square in seven lanes. Tiananmen Square is large enough that every American football game could be played at once with room for 12 more.

Tiananmen Square is the symbolic heart of the country. It is the ritualistic and bureaucratic center of the country. All petitions to the government have been delivered here, before the Forbidden City, the Ming Dynasty Imperial compound. Li Zicheng's peasant uprising of 1644 found voice here. Other events that took place at Tiananmen Square were Yuan Shikai's declaration of his sovereignty in 1916; the revolution in response to the Versailles Treaty of 1919; the Autumn Harvest uprising of 1926; Mao's proclamation of the New China in 1945; the August 1, 1957, uprising; the uprising that brought about the end of the Cultural Revolution and the Gang of Four in 1976; and the demonstrations over Hu Yaobang's dismissal from the Communist Party in 1987. The protests of 1989 not only had these historical precedents, but 1989 also was the 10th anniversary of the Democracy Wall, the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, the 70th anniversary of the May 4th Movement, and the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. These historical precedents were not coincidental: The students from Beijing University and Beijing Normal University planned it this way. They also planned the hunger strike of May 13 to coincide with Mikhail Gorbachev's visit because it would be embarrassing for a government that was not fulfilling its promises.

The Demonstrations

The pro-democracy demonstration actually began on April 15 at the death of Hu Yaobang. Hu was a purged liberal, considered an advocate of democracy. The demonstrators were, at this point, students and intellectuals. This was a time of internal party power politics. On April 19, the students read a proclamation making seven requests:

• 1.
  Reevaluate Hu Yaobang's policies.
• 2.
  Denounce the anti-spiritual pollution (which blamed foreign influence for all that was wrong in China) and anti-bourgeois liberalization (which hogtied intellectuals) campaigns.
• 3.
  Allow freedom of the press and freedom of speech.
• 4.
  Disclose the income of the leaders.
• 5.
  Cancel the 10 Beijing municipal regulations against demonstrations.
• 6.
  Increase spending for education and the improvement of living standards for intellectuals.
• 7.
  Truthfully report the memorial activities.

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