1. Today, June 4, marks the 31st anniversary of #TiananmenSquareMassacre by the Communist Party of China. Today, the day chillingly resonates with the Chinese people who find themselves in the same position as the summer of 1989. We recount the horrific events.
A Thread -
A Thread -
2. In mid-1980s, #China erupted in widespread student- led protests against the corrupt & authoritarian Communist Party. Among major demands were political reforms towards democracy.Naturally, the Communist Party viewed it as a threat. bbc.in/3gShT0o
3. In the spring of 1989, the protests had spread wide & were fuelled by the death of Hu Yaobang, the communist leader who had pushed for political reforms in China. Inspired by Hu, students took to the street and began a march from Beijing to Tiananmen Square in May.
4. On May 13, 1989, students went on a hunger strike at Tiananmen Square, demanding an open, democratic govt. They were joined by other protestors & by mid-May, the number of protestors swelled to tens of thousands. This coincided with the visit of PM of Soviet Union.
5. The people's movement for greater political freedom & participation rattled the Communist Party and they imposed a Martial Law on May 20. 250000 troops entered Beijing but this failed to intimidate the protesting civilians.
6. Fearing they'd lose the power, the Communist Party is said to have ordered the Army & the police to take action. At 1 AM on June 4, they opened fire on the protestors killing about 10000 people and injuring tens of thousands. This came to be known as #TiananmenSquareMassacre.
7. This gruesome violence against unarmed citizens marks the Communist Party's nature of suppressing people & censorship. It was condemned by the west & the US also imposed economic sanctions on China. However, in China, it's mention or discussion was highly reprimanded.
8. It wasn't the first instance of Human Rights Violation by the Communist Party but it was significant for the people as Tiananmen, with its link to the dynastic past, symbolised Change in China. This demand for change mostly led by students was met with violence & witch-hunt.
9. Protestors were jailed, so were journalists with some of them like Yu Dongyue, arrested for throwing ink on portrait of Mao in protest, were released as late as 2006. Reporting of the event was prohibited & broadcast by Western media was censored.
10. Reporting of the event was prohibited & broadcasts by Western media was censored. However, western media's coverage of the massacre has been criticised as they misreported the events as a Beijing spring instead of factual reporting that limited timely support from the West.
11. 31 years on, the communist party has strengthened its strangulating hold on innocent people, ending their freedom & erasing the memory of their remarkable resistance at #TiananmenSquare over the years. But post-#COVID, the resistance in spring of 1989 has begun brewing again.
