Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang at Tiananmen Square
calling on student hunger strikers, May 19, 1989. (AP Photo/Xinhua)
there were approximately 300,000 to 400,000 people. Quite a large num-
ber of workers and peasants are also sympathetic.
...
The key issue
blocking dialogue with the students is the judgment passed by the
April 26 editorial.
Ifthehungerstrikecontinuesandsomepeople
die, it will be like gasoline poured over a flame. If we take a confronta-
tional stance with the masses, a dangerous situation could ensue in
which we lose complete control.
While I was expressing my views, Deng appeared very impatient and
displeased. As soon as I had finished speaking, Li Peng and Yao Yilin
immediately stood up to criticize me. (Zhao 2009, 27-28)
...
The Tiananmen Papers, a topic published in 2001 that purports to
contain transcripts of discussions and deliberations by top Chinese
Communist officials on how to respond to the Tiananmen student
protests, conveys Zhao's comments at this key meeting as follows:
Martial law could give us total control of the situation, yes; but think of
the terror it will strike in the minds of Beijing's citizens and students.
Where will that lead?
In the forty years of the People's Republic,
our Party has learned many lessons from its political and economic mis-
takes. Given the crisis we now face at home and abroad, I think that one
...
