CHINA: TEN YEARS AFTER THE TIANANMEN NASSACRE, COMMUNIST AUTHORITIES ARE STILL FIRMLY IN POWER AND TRYING TO STAMP ON ALL FORMS OF OPPOSITION

Record ID: 1375139

  • Title: CHINA: TEN YEARS AFTER THE TIANANMEN NASSACRE, COMMUNIST AUTHORITIES ARE STILL FIRMLY IN POWER AND TRYING TO STAMP ON ALL FORMS OF OPPOSITION
  • Date: 2nd June 1999
  • Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (MAY 30, 1999) (REUTERS) SLV MAN PUSHING BICYCLE OVER BRIDGE OVERLOOKING TIANANMEN SQUARE LV SCAFFOLDING AROUND MONUMENT TO PEOPLE'S HEROES, AS AUTHORITIES SEAL OFF TIANANMEN SQUARE FOR EXTENSIVE RENOVATION SLV DOZENS OF POLICE STANDING NEAR TIANANMEN OUTSIDE
  • Embargoed: 13th November 2014 23:11
  • Keywords:
  • Location: REUTERS (CORINNE VIGNIEL/ TOM KIRKWOOD / FILE)/CHINA CENTRAL TELEVISION (CCTV) AND SHENZHEN TV CENTRAL TELEVISION (CCTV) AND SHENZHEN TV
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8VWRVT16EFYYLJCLJ2V25FICM
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Ten years after the Tiananmen massacre, communist authorities are still firmly in power, and are trying to silence the families of victims, as well as stamping on all forms of opposition.
    In China, old wounds remain unhealed, just days away from the tenth anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
    Year after year, families have braved strict surveillance to mourn victims of the 1989 pro-democracy protests.
    This year, authorities have intensified efforts to force them into silence and have crushed calls for a reversal of the official verdict on the crackdown.
    But many Chinese have neither forgiven nor forgotten the brutality with which authorities quelled what they called an "anti-government riot".
    In 1989, more than a million people poured into the streets to vent their anger at corruption, nepotism, economic mismanagement and poor job prospects for college graduates.
    On June 4, authorities unleashed tanks and troops to crush seven weeks of protests, killing hundreds of unarmed demonstrators.
    The image of a lone protester standing in front of a line of tanks has become one of the most powerful symbols of the 20th century.
    Journalist Jasper Becker covered the bloody crackdown in 1989, and is now Beijing bureau chief for the South China Morning Post.
    "It was the first time that you saw the People's Liberation Army actually turn its guns on peaceful demonstrators in China and although this had happened before it was the first time it had happened in public, and that created such a rift between the rulers and those governed that this is inevitably going to come out and come to the surface in the next few years," he said.
    But those who thought the army crackdown had robbed the Communist Party of its mandate to rule underestimated its strength.
    Communism collapsed in the former Soviet Union, as dictators toppled worldwide, but Chinese leaders managed to retain their grip on power.
    China has refused to reassess the Tiananmen crackdown, saying the decision to use military force against demonstrators was correct, and the conclusion would never be changed.
    Ten years on, the Communist Party still has a clear monopoly.
    China's tiny pro-democracy movement is struggling for survival and its best-known dissidents are either in jail or living abroad.
    Amnesty International has documented 241 people still in prison or on medical parole after serving long sentences for their roles in the demonstrations.The London-based human rights group says the total number still jailed is certainly higher; dissidents put the figure at more than 3,000.
    Most leaders of the Tiananmen protest are now living in exile in the United States and have failed to organise any cohesive opposition movement.
    A few months ago, Chinese authorities intensified their political hold and jailed leaders of the small opposition China Democracy Party.
    Authorities are also tightening their grip on the media and are routinely blocking Internet websites containing sensitive political information.
    Beijing has been bracing for trouble ahead of the tenth year anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
    The NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade provided authorities with a unique opportunity to whip up student nationalism and stage government-approved protests.
    Students from elite colleges that were hotbeds of the 1989 protests poured into the streets in their thousands to condemn the NATO attack which killed three Chinese journalists.
    Ten years ago, students erected a Statue of Liberty in Tiananmen square.
    Last month, they pelted the U.S embassy with rocks and firebombs and burnt U.S flags.
    Authorities gave full backing to anti-NATO protests and carefully channeled people's anger.
    This was not the case in April, when 10,000 members of the Falun Gong sect staged a peaceful sit-in outside Zhongnanhai leadership compound, demanding official status for their faith.
    The cult claims 100 million members worldwide, higher than communist party membership of 60 million.
    The protest caught Chinese leaders off guard and highlighted the rise of new challenges in modern China.
    Few individuals have the courage to speak up.
    One of them is newspaper reporter He Qinglian (pronouced Her Tcheeng-leeyen), who has blown the whistle on corruption, arguing that corrupt officials are looting state property, producing a society of haves and have-nots bubbling with discontent.
    "All the problems are happening in the economic sphere, but they all trace their origins back to non-economic factors.
    To solve this problem, we have to point the spear at the source, which would mean reforming the political structure.
    But talking about political reform in China is taboo," she said.
    Authorities are not taking any risks, and have intensified surveillance of pro-democracy activists in the run-up to the tenth anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
    Tiananmen Square, centre of the 1989 demonstrations and the symbolic political heart of China, has been cordoned off for several months for repairs ahead of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st.
    Communist rulers have selectively addressed some of the demands of the Tiananmen protesters over the past decade, shoring up their legitimacy with the delivery of rapid economic growth and appeals to patriotism.
    But growing income disparities, rising unemployment, abuses of power and rampant corruption have left millions simmering with discontent.
    A slowdown in the economy could have serious implications for China's political structure, and may reveal some of the cracks in the system.
    "Well, I think if there were really a serious economic crisis, I think the latent divisions within the communist party would come to fore, and there would be one group advocating closer ties with the United States and the West and advocating political reform, and others who'd say reforms have been successful, let's carry on, let's keep China the way it is, as a dictatorship, and as an authoritarian independent power," Becker said.
    Intense repression will probably ensure that the tenth year anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown passes without majorincident.
    A repeat of the Tiananmen Square protests is unlikely at this stage, but China's future hangs on a delicate balance.
    Amnesty International recently urged China to compensate those killed and wounded in the bloodshed and give a complete account of all the victims.
    The families of the dead say they will continue to press for a reversal of the official verdict on the crackdown despite efforts to isolate and silence them.
    For Zhou Shuzhuang (pronouced djoe shoodjooang), June 4th will once again reopen raw wounds.
    Her son Duan Changlong (pronounced doo-anh changlong), a student at Qinghua (pronouced tcheeng hwa) university, was shot dead by soldiers as they forced their way into the heart of Beijing in 1989.He was 24 at the time.
    Ten years ago, June 4 was marked in blood.
    For the families of the victims, only tears are left these days.
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