The Beijing Spring of 1989- What was the political significance of the events in Tiananmen Square from April-June 1989 and what are the present day repercussions?

Résumé du document

1989 was a historical landmark, being the starting date for a wave of revolutions in the
Communist block during which most of the soviet governments around the world, especially in
East-Europe, were overthrown by popular protests. China has not been spared this “smokeless war”
1 : from April to June, as much as 300,000 students and workers gathered in Tiananmen Square, 2 in
Beijing, to ask for a democratisation of the political system. On the morning of June 4th, military
action was taken to clear the square of demonstrators, thus ending the protests.

As the biggest rally
in the history of the People's Republic of China, 3 the Tienanmen Square protests have a particular
role in the contemporary history of the country, that I shall here analyse. I shall first explain the
main motives for the movement, then in a second time describe how the protests got out of the
Government's control, and finally examine the present-day consequences of the ‘Beijing Spring'.

Extraits

[...] The Beijing Spring of 1989 What was the political significance of the events in Tiananmen Square from April-June 1989 and what are the present day repercussions ? 1989 was a historical landmark, being the starting date for a wave of revolutions in the Communist block during which most of the soviet governments around the world, especially in East-Europe, were overthrown by popular protests. China has not been spared this “smokeless 1 : from April to June, as much as 300,000 students and workers gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, to ask for a democratisation of the political system. [...]

[...] Boulder, CO : Westview Press FEWSMITH, Joseph, China since Tiananmen : The Politics of Transition. Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press MILES, James A. R., The Legacy of Tiananmen : China in Disarray. Ann Arbor, MI : The University of Michigan Press NATHAN, Andrew J. (introduced Tiananmen Papers”, in Public Affairs 80, No New York : January/February 2001 : 1 48. [...]

[...] I shall first describe the motives that led to the Tiananmen Square protests, the main one being the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping. Until 1978, China followed the “Soviet Stalinist system” but decided then to engage in a process of “decentralization” (to foster responsibility and private enterprise) and “transformation from a planned to a market economy”. changes, the “reform of the irrational price system”, cadres” One of the main 7 led to an inflation of which impoverished many workers. In the same time, the apparition of a social class of “third echelon with financial privileges derived from “speculation, offering or taking bribes, and 1 James A. [...]

[...] SAICH, Tony, Rise and Fall of the Beijing People's Movement”, The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press, July 1990 : 181 208. SHI, Hong, “China's Political Development after Tiananmen : Tranquility by Default”, Asian Survey 30, No Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, December 1990 : 1206 1217. TIANJIAN, Shi, Democratic Movement in China in 1989 : Dynamics and Failure”, in Asian Survey 30, No Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, December 1990 : 1186 1205. ZHAO, Dingxin, The Power of Tiananmen : State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement. [...]

[...] NATHAN (introduced Tiananmen Papers” Tony SAICH, Rise and Fall of the Beijing People's Movement” Tony SAICH, Rise and Fall of the Beijing People's Movement” Andrew J. NATHAN (introduced Tiananmen Papers” Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid Shi TIANJIAN, Democratic Movement in China in 1989” 3/6 ‘Princes Party' 1 AM on June all martial-law troops had entered Tiananmen Square” and started a few hours later to clear the square 35 : Deng Xiaoping had asked for minimum casualties yet an unknown number of civilians and soldiers died, * most of them in the streets of Beijing, when the people tried to stop the Army's march towards Tiananmen Square I shall now analyse the present-day consequences of the Tiananmen Square events. [...]