TIANANMEN SQUARE

TIANANMEN SQUARE, The Making of a Protest by Vijay Gokhale (published by Harper Collins) –

by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra

As the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square event draws near, the reflections and insights provided by Vijay Gokhale in ‘Tiananmen Square, The Making of a Protest’, add a sheen that serves well for a contemporary understanding of China – government, policies, and psychologies. Gokhale retired as the 32nd Foreign Secretary of India and was previously the Indian Ambassador to China. During the 1989 events, he was a young diplomat in Beijing, and has revisited these events with the benefit of hindsight, extensive diplomatic experience and quality reference – with a refreshing South Asian voice.

Tiananmen Square, ironically, translates to ‘Gates of Heavenly Peace’. The popular historical retelling and general understanding of Tiananmen Square 1989 events starts with the death of popular Chinese Communist Party leader and liberal reformer, Hu Yaobang. On April 22, 1989 in Beijing, students were attempting to participate in his funeral ceremony, during an unauthorized demonstration. If the event is googled, it is reported for popular culture that ‘his death in April triggered an unprecedented wave of pro-democracy demonstrations.’ From that time, the escalation of activity and intrigue from all sides, protestors and Communist Party – rising to the violence of June 4, 1989. This book reveals that the protests were about far more than call for democracy, if even that.

The value of Gokhale’s insights are manifold, not least being those of eyewitness. His clear narrative gives context to often chaotic dynamics: of the Communist Party, student groups, army, local/foreign press and embassies. He gives precise and bold commentary on misrepresentation of facts by embassies and press. Even now, as we live in the age of social media, where images might record and verify numbers and actions (think Black Lives Matter) – the very truth that protests even in China are often not based on coherent, cohesive and uniform ideologies – gives cause to pause. Gokhale shows a quiet fascination and respect for Premier Deng Xiaoping, despite the his tactics and focus, as exemplified in the response to Tiananmen Square. As the power behind the Party, Deng’s actions in the lead-up rippled to add to the volatile mix of agents, for intended and unintended instability. He was apparently fighting within his own party as well as with outside influences, as usual.

Deng‘s journey through the Communist Party ranks, fraught with challenge, change and recovery showed resilience and continued belief that “the Communist Party was first, last and everything, and all else was subordinate to this principle.” Ever the pragmatist and opportunist, Deng re-crafted China’s foreign policy, normalising relationships with the US, with Moscow and compelling the British to begin talks about the return of HK.

He reached out to India to resolve a longstanding boundary dispute and understanding the importance of personal connection, in Dec. 1988 when PM Rajiv Gandhi visited China (first Indian PM to do so in 34 years) he greeted him with warm words of ‘I welcome you to China, my young friend.’

Deng’s famous line “It does not matter if it is a yellow cat or a black cat so long as it catches the mice,” echoes through policies and actions, with Gokhale tracing both for a better understanding of the leader who defined the dynamics of the time whether in the front line or shadows.

He also provides a refreshing critique of Western diplomatic efforts and press reporting, raising questions as to whether their actions were based on rash spin, calculated pro-democratic incentives or just neglect of reality. Whatever the reasons, such misreporting and misunderstanding, including on the nature of the student movements; the dynamics of the protest and the actual event developments, created international falsehoods that belied the nuances of the situation.

Certainly, the making of Tiananmen Square was far from a streamlined and well thought out student protest or national response. He is as critical of student leaders, revealing their often self promotional motives, as he is of other protagonists. And such becomes the benefit of this clinical, hindsight review, showing that study of a protest, whether ‘failed’ or ‘successful’, provides lessons for future management of the parties involved.

This book takes the Tiananmen Square protest as a litmus for human and geo-political behaviours, chemistries and ambitions. A constant undercurrent is the propaganda that surrounds and shades government, diplomatic, press and public actions. Ghokhale asserts that the student demonstrations were not about democracy. Referring to CIA and embassies’ reports, as well as records of Party leaders’ meetings with foreign leaders, he adeptly brings support to an analysis that is as much damning as it is analytical.

More than three decades later, the Tiananmen Square incident refuses to be forgotten. The events in the summer of 1989 would set the course for China’s politics and re-define its relationship with the world. “China’s message was clear: it remained committed to market-oriented reform, but it would not tolerate any challenge to the supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party”. In return for economic prosperity, the Chinese people have surrendered some personal rights to the state. The world, in favour of economic returns, has turned a blind eye to such compromised rights by China.

Extracting some of these observations offers lessons for the contemporary – whether they be responsible evaluation of China’s Communist Party, Western interface with the same, or simply the amount of misinformation that permeates government actions and reactions. He notes at the start that “[t]hroughout Chinese history the intellectual has always been the more respected and the more feared than the bearer of arms, and this was true for the Communist Part of China from its earliest times.”

The insights and lessons shared in Tiananmen Square, The Making of a Protest, should elicit fear and respect.

Datin Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra is a Sri Lankan born cultural entrepreneur and advisor, scholar and currently holds the position of Academic Associate, History of Art, Oxford University. She is furthering multi-disciplinary scholarship on colonial photographic image and writings.