China needs to address the causes of June 4, not just seek its reappraisal
A rumour circulated on the internet late last month that Premier Wen Jiabao had suggested a reappraisal of the June 4 movement. Perhaps because of this, many more people posted online the infamous People's Daily editorial on April 26, 1989 that fatefully condemned the student protests as an anti-socialism upheaval. So I reread it. I'd read it so many times that I'd become numb to its content. This time, I tried to treat it as political comment, and read it with fresh eyes.
Between April and June in 2009, I visited the University of Hong Kong three times and watched from the sidelines the heated debate on June 4 that unfolded on campus that year. The dramatic result of the controversy was the ousting of HKU student union president Ayo Chan Yi-ngok, but the fiercest argument was between the Hong Kong and mainland students on their different views about the 1989 protests.
Some upset mainland students came to me for answers. I realised that their understanding of the movement was largely based on the so-called '4/26 editorial' and its conclusion that 'without firmly putting down this upheaval, our country would have no peace', and we could not enjoy the economic development today. I patiently filled in some of the missing history, but never thought to go through the editorial together with them.
The editorial marked a turning point in the June 4 movement. The late Zhao Ziyang said in his memoirs that the article ratcheted up the tension between the students and the government, radicalising the confrontation, and former premier Li Peng was the instigator. Zhao, then the party's general secretary, was visiting North Korea when Li took advantage of his absence to report to Deng Xiaoping an exaggerated account of the students' movement. Li then took the gist of Deng's response and directed the People's Daily to write an editorial based on it.
The editorial triggered a mass rally the next day, turning the student rallies into a wider pro-democracy movement. This led, step by step, to a military curfew, hunger strikes and eventually to the tragedy of a violent crackdown.
The editorial compiled an exaggerated list of the students' 'crimes', and called on the people to unite to fight this 'serious political war'. The people must 'tell right from wrong' and act to end this 'upheaval' quickly and firmly. Its conclusion shocked the nation, but few people examined its evidence for making such claims. What, according to the editorial, were the students accused of?
In just 1,000 or so characters, the editorial repeatedly castigated the 'abnormal' activities masquerading as memorial events for the late Hu Yaobang.
