Tiananmen: 25 Years Later

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests.  A large Orwellian fog obscures most young Chinese people's knowledge of the event.  The vast majority of those I have spoken with about the event don't even know that the protests occurred over several weeks proceeding the crackdown, and most in China have almost no knowledge about what touched off those protests in the first place.  Rumors circulate that the Chinese censors hired to erase images of the event miss snapshots because they have so little knowledge of the protests.  I have heard that twice as many troops sieged Beijing during the crackdown than were used in China's invasion of Vietnam a decade earlier.  I might be unsure of the number of troops here, but believe me, "seiged" is the correct term to describe the event.

The most famous image of the crackdown.

To understand Tiananmen and China 25 years later, you must look at what was happening in China at the time.  The country's economic reforms in the late 1970's started a train in motion that derailed in June of 1989.  In roughly a decade, the entire focus of the nation shifted from "ideological purity" to "economic reform".  The two were certainly mutually exclusive in this case, and the adoption of free-market reforms severely harmed the party's "mandate of heaven".  Many of the economic reforms, though successful in stimulating the Chinese economy, resulted in nepotism, unemployment, and corruption, and China is still yet to emerge from the political coma that resulted from the crackdown.

Many of the protesters now hold important
positions in Chinese society

The youth of China remain ignorant to the events of the protests, largely by choice.  This is difficult for many in the west to admit, but it is sadly true.  Why risk imprisonment when I can travel abroad for freedom? remains the attitude of many of the country's elite.  A recent article published by the BBC detailed the phenomenon of "naked officials" in Guangdong sending their families to live overseas.  The government forced the officials to recall their families or face demotion or losing their jobs.  However, only a small fraction of the officials could convince their families to move back to mainland China.  This attitude of Chinese elite has gone a long way to exacerbate China's political coma over the last 25 years.      

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-27747097

The Goddess of Democracy
defies the Eternal Helmsman

It is not a matter of "IF" a reevaluation of Tiananmen will come in China, but "WHEN".  In all likelihood it will coincide with some other significant event, such as an economic slowdown.  Though the Chinese economy continues to grow at breakneck speed, economic slowdowns are an inevitable part of any economic cycle.  Nations post-industrialization don't growth at 9% anymore, and despite the blind belief many here have that China is some sort of special, magical nation that will buck this trend, it simply isn't going to happen.  The CPC should do itself a favor and reevaluate the actions of its former members while times are still good.  Waiting until it is forced to do this will only hurt its credibility and legitimacy.  While this seems like common sense for any authoritarian regime needing popular support, never overestimate the Communist Party of China and its common sense, or lack thereof.         

25 years later, the CPC continues its attempt to perfect authoritarianism.  Economic prosperity became the lifeblood of the party's legitimacy in China post-Tiananmen, but what will happen when that form of legitimacy becomes harder to find.