Behind the Tiananmen Massacre
Social, Political, and Economic Ferment in China
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- £40.99
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- £40.99
Publisher Description
The 1989 prodemocracy movement in the People's Republic of China and the subsequent crackdown were marked by many dramatic reversals. Supported at first by several thousand Beijing University students, the movement quickly attracted millions of followers and developed into a nationwide mass movement. The jubilant mood during the short-lived freedom in Tiananmen Square turned into despair over the unnecessary bloodshed. The event raised many deeply disturbing questions: Was the massacre necessary and justified? What is the historical significance of this movement? Which path will the PRC follow in the decade ahead? Although no one had anticipated the tragic outcome, the popular unrest was not totally unexpected. When I read the news of 200,000 Beijing students and residents, in open defiance of the government's order, staging a largescale demonstration on Apri120, I knew a confrontation between the people and the government was inevitable.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This is a comprehensive review and analysis of the causes and effects of the 1989 pro-democracy movement in the People's Republic of China and its bloody climax. Cheng explains how the display of power by student-led masses threatened the Deng regime and triggered intra-Party strife that entangled the students, making a peaceful resolution difficult. He describes the elaborate cover-up by the government and incidentally corrects mistaken reporting by Western media, including stories of clashes on the outskirts of Beijing that he claims never took place. Providing a broad historical context to the 1989 turmoil, Cheng shows that the movement--like the uprisings in Eastern Europe five months later--developed from grievances that had been suppressed for decades. He concludes that the June 4 massacre brought economic reform to an abrupt halt, damaged the Beijing government's international status and was ``completely unnecessary and unjustified.'' The book is an authoritative piece of scholarship by the chairman of the Asian studies committee at Ball State University, Indiana. Photos.
