The Tiananmen Square Protest

Paper Summary:

The paper reveals that the Tiananmen Square protest and its suppression meant different things to different people. The paper discusses how some Chinese were dissatisfied by what the Chinese Community Party government had been able to achieve, while some opposed a still oppressive government. The paper discusses how for American and other right-wing Western observers, Tiananmen Square seemed to show a predictable Chinese push for democratic reform, as they were certain that millions who lived in the People's Republic of China (PRC) 'obviously' wanted more freedom. The paper shows how this was not accurate, since demands for civil liberties would drop if the PRC could bring fast economic growth.

Outline:
Introduction
A Democratic Demand?
Tiananmen Square
Varied Results
Who were the Demonstrators?
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The Communist state's crackdown after the Tiananmen Square gathering of more than one million persons, some of them demanding democratic reforms, caught the interest of many followers of the People's Republic of China (PRC). American and other journalists, along with scholars, assumed that the Chinese had had enough of Communist rule as fitted in with Cold War ideas of democracy and capitalism as inevitable, as people would always want them, and the government that refused democratic reform holding its people back. This paper explains that this was not quite what was shown at Tiananmen Square or in its aftermath of state repression."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Des Forges, R.L. Ning and Wu Y-F. Eds. Chinese Democracy and the Crisis of 1989 - Chinese and American Reflections. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.
• Han, Theodore and John Li. Eds. Tiananmen Square Spring 1989 - a Chronology of the Chinese Democracy Movement. Berkeley: University of California - Institute of East Asian Studies, 1992.
• Hershkowitz, Linda. "Tiananmen Square and the Politics of Place." Political Geography. 12. 1993, pp. 395-420.
• Pan, Philip P. "China Plans to Honour a Reformer." The Washington Post. September 9, 2005.
• Schell, Orville. Mandate of Heaven - the Legacy of Tiananmen Square and the Next Generation of China's Leaders. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.

More papers on The Tiananmen Square Protest:

• Cause and Effect Essay # 40839 : "The Tiananmen Square Protest"
• Analytical Essay # 139786 : "Tiananmen Square and Democratic Reform"
• Essay # 84456 : "Tiananmen Square "

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