This narrative, edited and abridged, is a recollection of the open yet orderly atmosphere that characterized three weeks in May 1989 when Beijing enjoyed a brief respite from Party control. Author Chen Gang, a college student during the iconic events, recalls his personal experience from the student demonstrations that involved millions of people.
There are concerns that China, removed from the one-Party state’s dominance, would suffer great chaos. As a matter of fact, we in Beijing enjoyed some 20 days of peace and order in the spring and summer of 1989—outside the grip of the Chinese Communist Party.
Starting May 13 of that year, college students from many of the Chinese capital’s institutions flocked to Tiananmen Square to take part in the demonstrations and hunger strike in support of human rights and to protest the corruption of Party officials. Ordinary residents as well as students, spontaneously joined in the events, making a peak of of three million people across Beijing.
It was from this day on that the Communist Party began to lose control, and anarchy seemed to loom over the capital.
Spontaneous Order at Tiananmen
At the time, I was a junior in college. On May 16, I went with my fellow students and professors to Tiananmen to support those on hunger strike. Every day, thousands upon thousands of Beijingers of different class backgrounds swarmed into the square or marched in parades around the area.
The police—those managing traffic, public security officers, and military police—had all left their posts at Tiananmen and in the general vicinity. But there was no chaos at all. Rather, students simply occupied the empty positions to maintain order. I was at the square every day, and I neither saw nor heard of any theft or violence.
To support the students, people from all over the capital sent a wide variety of food, drink, and other goods to the square. The supplies piled up in mountains. We immediately began a sincere effort to share the responsibilities of distribution. As firstcomers, we did not abuse our privilege. We instead handed out the food and supplies to others before seeing to our own needs. And those who came took just what they needed.
It was an emotional moment: I had never expected that the communist slogan of “Assign the abundant material goods to the people according to their need” would be first realized there at a Tiananmen Square—freed of the Party organization.
The patriotism of the students’ movement was a great motivator. The people set aside their selfishness and put their hearts to the future of the state and our nation. Among the students were no lack of beautiful girls from around the country. I was very young and without a girlfriend, and indeed there were many opportunities for me to find a like-minded young woman there on the square. Yet, for fear of blaspheming this great patriotic undertaking, I dared not be moved by any personal desires. I never asked the names or hometowns of those pretty girls standing next to me side by side.
Without the Party
On May 20, seeing power and personal privilege slipping from their hands, the Communist Party leadership declared martial law. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army were deployed outside Beijing and prepared to suppress the students and “resume normal order” despite the fact that it had never been lost and that the millions of Beijing residents were working and living in peace.
And it was with peaceful disobedience that hundreds of thousands of people blocked the People’s Liberation Army formations marching into the capital from all directions. The Beijing government, all but paralyzed, fell out of Party control. The capital’s higher institution set up autonomous students’ and workers’ associations, all without Party leaders.
Fully-armed soldiers arriving in combat vehicles were at a loss when they saw what the capital looked like. On May 21, I went to the Gucheng Street in Shijingshan District, which was near my home. I saw only a long column of military vehicles snaking through the street, stopped in place by a human chain of residents.
The troops had been fooled by the authorities, who claimed that there was “turmoil in Beijing” and that order needed to be restored. Locals surrounding the soldiers spoke to them about the truth of the circumstances, that the students were protesting against corruption, that Beijing was in good order, and that the PLA was not needed to restore anything. The only request was for the patriotic students and citizens to be spared bloodshed.
Everywhere the people of the capital used their bodies to halt the army vehicles. The words of a middle-aged lady stuck in my mind: “Why doesn’t the United Nations send peacekeeping forces to protect us here in Beijing?”
No police, military police, or soldiers occupied Beijing proper or its outskirts. The capital was simply out of the Communist Party’s domain. Not wanting to give the authorities any excuse to suppress the demonstrations, the students cooperated to institute a meticulous regime of social law and order, starting with directing traffic.
At that time, there was no “riot,” and even thieves renounced stealing. Beijing police statistics showed a visible decrease in all crimes during those events. Traffic accidents reached an all-time low. Commercial activity continued without interruption.
Common Hopes
Normally, under the Party’s governance, people were full of grudges that can be set alight at the smallest spark. On the street, slight offenses, like a bump or a knock, results in a shouting match. But during the demonstrations, those precious happy days following decades of the Party’s suppression, the people of Beijing beamed in celebration.
The events of this period were a bonding time for the residents of Beijing and the students. If you were on your way to Tiananmen or to block the military vehicles trying to enter the city, drivers would take you there for free. People felt close and friendly to whomever they came across. Even complete strangers became sisters and brothers in the shared hope of a China without the Communist Party.
One night, when I was hurrying home from Tiananmen on my bike, I ran into another biker. Before I was able to say a word, he said “No worries! Long live mutual understanding!” He left with a wave of his hand.
During the Tiananmen Square demonstrations that May, everyone had this sort of mutual understanding: that we should press forward as a group to have the Communist Party disappear completely from the Chinese stage. For the first time in decades, the media reported the truth and no longer censored their content to beautify the Party.
Abandoning Communist Brutality
From the evening of June 3 through the night and into June 4, tanks and troops armed with assault rifles cleared a bloody path to Tiananmen. In shock, I arrived at the Beijing Railroad General Hospital along with ambulances to provide first aid to the students and residents wounded by the bullets of the People’s Liberation Army. The scene was like a makeshift battlefield hospital, with a triage system in place.
At the Wukesong intersection, I saw the bodies of students crushed by tank treads, a thin layer of mangled flesh and bones was stuck to the ground.
In the aftermath of the massacre, dozens of students at my branch of the University of Science and Technology, Beijing, were taken away by soldiers wielding assault rifles. The rifle barrels of the Communist Party had broken the short-lived harmony of Beijing.
Tens of millions of Chinese have been killed in the Communist Party’s political movements. Each time the compassionate Chinese people hope it’s the last. And every time the Communist Party answers the Chinese people’s hopes with butchers’ knives and fresh blood.
The Communist Party lies about and smears the patriotic students and residents of Beijing while denying its own crimes. Today, the Communist Party continues to harvest the organs from living practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual practice.
Traditional beliefs and values have been wrecked by the evil Party. The ancient moral standards and social mores were forcibly abolished. Harmonious interpersonal relations were twisted into hatred, plunging the Chinese people into deep crisis. Everyone is a victim in this.
I believe that many Beijingers and people who were students back then still have memories of those joyful days in 1989 buried in their hearts. As Chinese people reject the Communist Party in ever greater numbers—whether privately, or in their actions—they’re increasingly able to imagine for themselves a peaceful China without the Party, and this imagining brings the reality closer and closer.
