April 15 is the anniversary of Hu Yaobang’s death. Hu was the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader during the most important time for economic reform in the 1980s. Then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping ousted Hu for being sympathetic to “bourgeois liberalism.” Hu’s death 23 years ago triggered the student protests, which were ended by the bloody crackdown on June 4, 1989, in Tiananmen Square.
April 5 is the Chinese Qingming Festival, the day for people to visit the graves of departed ones. For many years, people have been going to Hu Yaobang’s grave in Jiangxi Province on that day. What makes this year different is that the official Chinanews reported that many people have visited Hu’s grave to show their respect.
The report was widely reprinted by many Chinese media, including Xinhuanet, the website of the regime mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency. The report even mentioned that 300,000 people visited Hu’s grave in past years, including 80 CCP and state leaders and 200 ministry and provincial officials.
This report and its republication by many Chinese official media is the first sign confirming the widespread rumor from last month that Premier Wen Jiabao intends to push forward the re-evaluation of the student movement and subsequent massacre that occurred in Beijing 23 years ago.
On March 20, the Financial Times reported that, according to “people familiar with the matter,” Wen Jiabao raised the issue of the Tiananmen massacre three times on separate occasions during top-level, secret Party meetings. Each attempt was blocked by other leaders.
Bo Xilai, as the son of Bo Yibo, who pressed Deng Xiaoping to use the army to solve the challenge posed by the student protests, is one of the most vehement opponents of Wen’s proposal, according to the Financial Times. Many Chinese media outside China also reported Wen’s intention to rehabilitate the Tiananmen student movement.
Political Reform
Many Chinese believe that the first step for pushing forward political reform is removing the burden of the Tiananmen Square massacre. But actually, since political reform seems impossible, the rehabilitation of the Tiananmen issue is much easier and can be done separately from political reform.
The definition of political reform is not clear. The CCP National Congress has mentioned political reform many times. Actually, according to the Congress’s reports, political reform has never stopped. It just needs to be deepened.
In the Party’s dictionary, political reform must be under the leadership of the Party, following the line of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The purpose of reform is to enhance the Party’s leadership, not weaken it. Any real change, like freedom of press, freedom of assembly, or freedom of religious belief, is not allowed because any of these reforms would mean the end of Communist Party rule.
Then, how is rehabilitating the Tiananmen incident now possible? Those who committed the crime are no longer around. The Tiananmen massacre happened 23 years ago. Even at that time, the decision was made mainly by the elder communist leaders, who were mostly in their 80s at the time.
In the following generation’s leadership, former CCP head Jiang Zemin is the only one directly related to the incident. However, he was not the decision maker but the beneficiary. His opposition to the possible rehabilitation was that it would put into question his legality to be picked by Deng Xiaoping to replace the then-general secretary, Zhao Ziyang, who was ousted for refusing the military crackdown.
Of course, being against democracy and freedom is in Jiang’s nature. That’s why he shut down the World Economic Herald in Shanghai before the Tiananmen massacre occurred, at a time when most provincial leaders were still watching and waiting. That’s also the reason why Deng chose him.
Bo Xilai’s opposition to redressing the student movement is due to personal reasons because his father was involved in the decision to use the army against the students. This is not common with other leaders. Now, with Bo Xilai gone, this major obstacle has been removed.
Extending the Party’s Rule
Most communist leaders in the most powerful decision-making circle are afraid of two things about the Tiananmen massacre. First, afraid of any change, they just want to keep things as they are. Second, they are afraid that once the process starts, other groups might raise their own demands, and the old debts will finally bring down the Party.
However, most leaders also know that solving the issue of the Tiananmen massacre could make a big score with the public and regain some support for the Party if the timing is right. What is the right time? When the Party is in serious crisis and the leadership believes that solving the issue would extend the Party’s rule, even for a short time, that is the right time.
The process can be accelerated by some unpredictable events. On April 5, Wang Dan and several other Tiananmen student leaders published an open letter to the Chinese regime’s leadership. In the letter, they requested the right to visit China, their motherland.
Whether the open letter was triggered by the recent ouster of Bo Xilai is not clear. But when interviewed by Radio Free Asia, Wang did mention Wen Jiabao’s speech about inviting people with different opinions to visit Zhongnanhai. Zhongnanhai, where the regime’s top leaders live, is sometimes used as a synonym for the CCP leadership.
The next day, before any response from China was possible, Fang Lizhi died in his Arizona home. Fang was a renowned astrophysicist and prominent dissident in China in the 1980s. He is well-known in the United States for having stayed in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing for about one year before finally coming to America.
He and his wife entered the embassy on June 5, 1989, the second day of the Tiananmen massacre. He lived in exile from then on and never got the chance to go back to China.
No Apologies
Rehabilitation in China means that the authorities wrongfully accused, criticized, tortured, or jailed someone, and then announced his full or partial innocence. No apology is offered, whether the rehabilitation is with or without financial compensation. It’s a one-way decision—take it or leave it.
Rehabilitation is the way to prove that the Party is always correct and great. The wrongfully accused are supposed to be grateful for that. But some victims and part of the public believe that the CCP has no right to rehabilitate the student movement. They believe that the CCP should admit and apologize for the crimes it committed and ask for the forgiveness from the victims’ families and from the people.
Even if rehabilitation really happens, that doesn’t mean the Party has changed. The Party has done similar things before. In 1981, after the Cultural Revolution ended, the CCP passed the “Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China.”
Most of the events discussed in the “Resolution” are political campaigns in which millions of people suffered or were killed. The Party admitted some wrongdoings but refused to admit others. For example, the Party refused to admit that the anti-rightist campaign was wrong. The Party only admitted it had been expanded. In that campaign, the direct victims are estimated to be between 0.5 million and 2 million.
That “Resolution” was hailed as proving the greatness of the Party. It didn’t stop the Tiananmen massacre eight years later, and it certainly didn’t stop the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, which continues to today. The Party always learns the wrong lessons from history, and it certainly will do the same in the future.
