The Debaser [Online]

June fourth 2009 is the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. The date is a reminder of the death of many in a needless battle that took place on the streets of Beijing and shows us the power of a single person who for a few moments stopped the Chinese Army, and the world, in its tracks.

As a brief background on it all, Tiananmen Square has been at the centre of China’s everything through the centuries. Located in the centre of Beijing, Tiananmen Square, meaning the ‘Gate of Heavenly Peace’, has been at the epicentre of Chinese Communism. It was the location of the May fourth movement saw the birth of the Chinese communist party in 1919. This movement began the path that eventually culminated in the proclamation by Mao Zedong of the Chinese Republic in 1949 at the end of the Civil War, announcing China was now a Communist state.

The June the Fourth Movement of 1989 is now one of the most recognisable acts of dissidence, suppression and courage in recent history. In the fall out the Chinese Red Cross announced 2,600 deaths early in the wake of it all, a figure they have since denied, whilst the official Chinese government total is a mere 241 deaths. NATO Intelligence puts the figure closer to 7000, but the true toll may never be known. It was a movement that sent shockwaves around the world, beaming in the images of a troubled land to television sets globally. 

The stubborn stance of the unknown rebel of Tiananmen Square is one of the most powerful images of the 20^th century. One man standing up to the might of the peoples liberation Army, whilst around him his contemporaries are attacked by their own ‘peoples army’. The Tiananmen Square ‘massacre’ of June fourth 1989 was one of the most important catalysts for movement within China’s development into one of the world’s superpowers politically, socially and economically.