June Fourth

Before I forget any details (although this is highly unlikely considering the experience that I had), I want to tell you my story of what happened on 6/4/2009: the 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident.

First, a little background history: what comes to most people's minds when they hear of the "Tiananmen Square Incident" is the picture of a lone man blocking the passage of military tanks as they tried to reach China's largest public square where students were holding demonstrations calling for democracy - tanks that later made their way into the Square where the People's Liberation Army (PLA) fired on its own people, killing countless numbers of Chinese civilians.

And here's the "long-story-short" version of what I learned in class and through readings about the events that occurred in and around Tiananmen Square during the Spring of 1989:

University students began asking the Chinese Government for a student union that was completely independent of the Communist Party. When their requests were not just denied, but not even addressed, they began to widen their supporters, calling upon more students to join their efforts. Other groups and classes of Chinese citizens witnessed the student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and began to come to Beijing from the countryside to add their support and voice their own grievances. The movement quickly gained momentum and numbers.

Students drafted long petitions that called on the government to address certain concerns. Kneeling in front of the government buildings for hours (a position that harks back to kneeling on bended knee for the emperor), students were ultimately ignored. They started to take more drastic measures, engaging in hunger strikes - a very sensitive and serious move in a country that recently struggled through food shortages and famines.

Thus, the "Student Democracy Movement" was not just students, not just for democracy, and was in fact, quite a disorderly movement with leaders and members constantly in flux and even battling for supreme control among themselves. There are even accounts of so-called hunger strikers sneaking away from the Square to grab a bite to eat.

In the end, the Chinese Communist Party leaders declared Martial Law and ordered the demonstrators to leave the Square - or else. Tanks started to move from the outside of Beijing in toward the center of the city. In fact, most of the casualties occurred in the streets outside of Tiananmen when ordinary citizens tried to stop the tanks from reaching the Square and were rolled over or shot instead. By the time tanks reached the Square, most of the demonstrators had left, including most of the leaders.

All of this was complicated further by the political factionalism within the Party that played out during the few weeks leading up to the Incident on June Fourth, resulting in some individuals' promotion and others' expulsion. In addition, Chinese citizens innocently believed that the "People's Army" would never harm the people it was meant to protect; while at the same time, before entering Beijing, PLA soldiers were prepped with information that the demonstrators involved were in fact trying to overthrow the Party.

Given the history, it is no wonder that the Chinese Government attempts to suppress any discussion surrounding this event - eliminating information from textbooks, the Internet, and everyday knowledge. [BBC: Chinese leaders quiet on Tiananmen 5/31/09 and NYTimes: Tiananmen now seems distant to China's students 5/21/09] However, in a country that is big on commemorations and anniversaries, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident that passed on June 4, 2009 could not be ignored and I made a point to make it to the Square to witness the day's happenings myself.

On the morning of June 4th, I took the subway to the Tiananmen West station. As I was walking toward the Square, I was stopped about a block away by a group of policemen who asked to check my bag - not an official check, but just a quick look and then they let me pass. Lining the streets around the Square were tons of police and security guards, standing in groups and looking incredibly awkward as they attempted to appear casual - as if the increased police presence was not due to the date, but was simply a usual routine practice. [BBC: Tiananmen in anniversary lockdown 6/4/09]

In order to reach the Square, I had to walk through a pedestrian tunnel, where I encountered the first official security check. After putting my bag through the x-ray machine, I was pulled aside and asked for my passport (to my disappointment, they obviously knew I was a foreigner even though I had been trying to exude my best Chinese attributes). Since I don't usually carry my passport with me, I handed them my Chinese student ID, which the young policeman accepted and then let me through. Phew...made it into the Square.

The minute I walked onto the Square and looked around, I immediately started laughing. I had read journalistic accounts of the plain-clothes cops that are often planted in Tiananmen Square during sensitive dates to keep the peace while maintaining a semblance of normalcy. But when I saw them on June 4th, I couldn't help myself: they were so blatantly obvious that their attempted concealment only made them stand out more.

Groups of young men stood huddled in pairs or groups of 3 underneath umbrellas. (Granted, using umbrellas to block the sun is common among Chinese people; however, those people are usually girls, not men, and definitely not several men together.) With matching hats and umbrellas, they tried to look like regular Chinese tourists. However, upon closer examination, the ear pieces and walkie-talkies gave them away. And after who-knows-how-many months or years of training, the plain-clothes cops could never get rid of their straight-backed posture. In fact, they even walked in step with the cops in uniform. Way to blend in.

After walking around, I left the Square to check out a nearby museum I wanted to visit. And it was during my second attempt to enter the Square that I ran into problems. This time, after putting my bag through the security machine, I was pulled aside and examined more closely. However, the only difference that I ran into this time when compared to the first was that the police realized I had my laptop with me. For some reason, the combination of not having my passport but having a laptop was a no-no for letting me into the Square (also, when responding to their question of "Where are you from?," replying with "America" probably didn't help my case - I should have played my Chinese card there). I was refused entrance and told to walk across the street from Tiananmen Square to reach the subway station and return home.

Like I was going to let that stop me. I walked across the street and through another entrance where they let me through with no questions asked and I got to enjoy one more stroll through the "trying-to-appear-casual-but-really-adding-more-tension-to-this-already-sensitive-oops!-I-mean-not-sensitive-date" environment.

And what struck me the most about all of this was that it just seemed so absolutely pointless.

The reason that the Chinese Government did not want to commemorate nor crackdown during June 4th was because any acknowledgement of the date in any manner would be admitting its very existence. However, all the tactics used to "ignore" the 20th anniversary (i.e. plain-clothes cops) only made the day more unusual. In addition, the measures taken to increase security - oh, but wait, we can't admit that we're increasing security - (i.e. security checks, bag x-rays, etc.) were not uniform nor effective. For any trained eye, or common bystander for that matter, there was definitely something different going on at Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 2009 - and no matter how much the government wants to suppress the memory of the date, its existence cannot be erased.

[I managed to take pictures of Tiananmen Square on June 4th, but seeing as my digital camera broke, I only had a disposable camera to use and have not had a chance to develop the pictures yet, but I'll put them up soon!]