Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/tiananmen-square-29th-anniversary-crackdown/story?id=55564966
In fact, the prosperity and flourishing of China today owe a considerable debt to the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement. Although Deng Xiaoping ordered the military to suppress the movement, the Tiananmen Incident also exerted tremendous pressure on the Chinese Communist Party.
The Tiananmen Incident took place amid resistance to reform and opening up by the conservative faction and elder statesmen within the Communist Party. At that time, an increasingly vocal anti-reform sentiment emerged within the Party.
The Tiananmen Incident prompted Deng Xiaoping to recognize the contradiction between the conservative ruling class of the CCP and the aspirations of the common people. This realization led to his famous "Southern Tour" in the early 1990s, during which he adopted a high-profile stance to affirm the achievements of development in southern coastal areas of China. This move exerted pressure on the conservative forces within the Party that sought to impede reforms, ultimately compelling the Chinese government to continue its policy of reform and opening up.
Aside from its tragic consequences and lasting scars, the Tiananmen Incident played a role in preventing the CCP from reversing course at a critical moment when China was facing regression.
The Tiananmen Square Incident represented a tumultuous phase in China's pursuit of reform and opening up. While this tragic event could not reinvigorate the momentum of political reform advocated by Hu Yaobang, it nonetheless played a role in sustaining the ongoing process of economic liberalization in China.
However, it is important to note that many leaders in China, who benefited from the Tiananmen Incident, are currently in a state of semi-retirement. They were swiftly propelled to power during the leadership vacuum among the younger generation following the incident. Therefore, achieving a full re-evaluation of the Tiananmen Incident or at least an impartial assessment of its lasting achievements in economic reform remains elusive in the short term.
Nevertheless, we must not succumb to the argument put forth by the CCP and some overseas Chinese nationalists, who completely reject the value of the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement out of fear that Westerners might exploit democracy and human rights to hinder China's progress.
Every major social movement carries significance in shaping human social change and represents the spirit and values of its time. In comparison to the mass struggle during the Cultural Revolution led by the Chinese Communist Party from 1966 to 1976, the Tiananmen Incident transcended that era of dehumanization and disregard for humanity. It inherited the democratic spirit of the May Fourth Movement and resonated with the nationwide student movement in the late 1980s, which called for democracy and freedom.
In addition to acknowledging the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement for preserving China's continuous economic opening, we should also appreciate the Chinese intellectuals who actively engaged during the era when justice was being collectively pursued worldwide in the late 1980s.
It is crucial to remember that it was the Chinese Communist Party, not the students gathered in front of Tiananmen Square, that brought about the bloodshed in the Tiananmen Incident.
Furthermore, let us not forget that the voices calling for the Chinese government to halt reform and opening up, both before and after the Tiananmen Incident, did not originate from the students in Tiananmen Square but from some leaders within Zhongnanhai.
When spectators often engage in posthumous analysis of historical tragedies they have not personally experienced, and which did not result in the death or injury of their own loved ones and friends, I earnestly request everyone to reflect on a famous quote from Malcolm X (1925-1965), a prominent black Muslim leader in the American Civil Rights Movement:
"Violence is never the answer, whether in the past or the present."
Note: This article was translated by ChatGPT from its original source at http://erhc79.blogspot.com/2006/04/blog-post_21.html
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