Rhetorical trajectories of tiananmen square

Diplomatic History

Volumn 34, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 71-94

  Kluver, Randolph ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 74049133631     PISSN: 01452096     EISSN: 14677709     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7709.2009.00833.x     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. Bush's discussion of this issue came during a discussion with students from the United States and China during the 2007 George Bush China-U.S. Relations Conference, Washington, DC. October 22-25, 2007.
2. Of course, there are no public attitude surveys conducted within China to determine the level of knowledge of Chinese citizens regarding the Tiananmen events. However, the official refusal to "reconsider the verdict on Tiananmen" means that there is no opportunity for meaningful engagement, at a public level, as to the meaning or impact of the events.
3. For an example of the former, see Andrew Scobell, China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March (New York, 2003), 144-67. Prominent examples of the latter include Zhang Liang, "Reflections on June Fourth," in Andrew Nathan and Perry Link, eds., The Tiananmen Papers (London, 2001), xi-xiv; Han Minzhu, Cries for Democracy: Writings and Speeches from the 1989 Chinese Democracy Movement (Princeton, NJ, 1991). Although the events occurred a full two decades ago, and the events generated hundreds of articles and books purporting to explain the events, many of the secondary writings overemphasized the perspective of the students and neglected the perspective of the government on the movement, thus neglecting one of the most important aspects of the events. One of the better analyses is Dingxin Zhao's The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Movement (Chicago, 2001). In contrast to the competing factions model for understanding Chinese political conflict, Zhao argues that the Tiananmen movement and the response to it arise from the dynamics between state-society relations and finds a solution in the configuration between a controlling state, a weak society, and evolving definitions of the relationship between the two.
4. Kenneth Burke, On Symbols and Society (Chicagos, 1989, 73
5. Lucien Pye, "Tiananmen and Chinese Political Culture: The Escalation of Confrontation from Moralizing to Revenge," Asian Survey 30, no. 4 (1990): 331-47. See also Craig Calhoun, Neither Gods nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China (Berkeley, CA, 1994
6. Han, Cries for Democracy. The name "Han Minzhu" is not an actual name, but rather a Chinese pseudonym for "Chinese democracy." "Minzhu," or democracy, was the most used word in the major writings of the period. The assistant editor was identified as "Hua Sheng," also a pseudonym, meaning "the voice of the Chinese people."
7. The compiler is a pseudonym for a government official who had access to the documents and provided them to the editors of the volume. Nathan and Link, The Tiananmen Papers.
8. Qian Qichen, Ten Episodes in China's Diplomacy (New York, 2005). See particularly the substance of Deng's letter to Bush on August 11, 1989, 138.
9. Zhao Ziyang, Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang (New York, 2009
10. George Washington University Library, Tiananmen Square 1989, the Declassified History, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 16, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/index.html (accessed November 14, 2007).
11. Bush himself wrote two letters to Deng Xiaoping, one on May 29, prior to the military crackdown, and one on June 20, some two weeks after the crackdown. The first letter remains classified, while the second was published as part of a collection of Bush's letters. George Bush, All the Best: My Life in Letters and Other Writings (New York, 1999) 428-43. Bush and his National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft also discussed the Tiananmen movement in their book A World Transformed (New York, 1998). Former Ambassador James Lilley published his view of the events surrounding Tiananmen in his book China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage, and Diplomacy in Asia (New York, 2004). One noteworthy analysis of this episode is in Harry Harding's A Fragile Relationship: The United States and China since 1972 (Washington, DC, 1992). Dingxin Zhao's analysis in The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement (Chicago, 2001) is also a powerful analysis of the movement from the perspective of political legitimacy.
12. Dingxin Zhao, The Power of Tiananmen, 193
13. Binyan Liu, Tell the World: What Happened in China and Why (New York, 1989), 8
14. Wuer Kaixi, Speech at Tiananmen Square, "The New May Fourth Manifesto," in Han, Cries for Democracy, 135
15. Han, Cries for Democracy, 376
16. "Witnessing Tiananmen: Student Talks Fail," BBC Online (May 28, 2004), http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3757433.stm
17. "Witnessing Tiananmen: Protests Mount," BBC Online (May 26, 2004), http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3749869.stm.
18. Daniel Kelliher, "Keeping Democracy Safe from the Masses: Intellectuals and Elitism in the Chinese Protest Movement," Comparative Politics 25, no. 4 (July 1993): 379-96
19. Lei Guang, "Elusive Democracy: Conceptual Change and the Chinese Democracy Movement, 1978-79 to 1989," Modern China 22 (October 1996): 417-47.
20. Han, Cries for Democracy, 59-60
21. Alan R. Kluver, "Student Movements in Confucian Societies: Remembrance and Remonstration in South Korea," in G. DeGroot, ed., Student Protests: The Sixties and After (London, 1998), 219-31.
22. "A Letter to Citizens of Beijing," in Han, Cries for Democracy, 75.
23. "Urgent Call to Mobilize from the Protect Tiananmen Headquarters," in Han, Cries for Democracy, 359
24. "Comrade Zhao Ziyang's speech at the meeting of the board of governors of the Asian Development bank" (May 4, 1989), in Link and Perry, The Tiananmen Papers, 115-16
25. Zhao Ziyang, Prisoner of the State, 11
26. Link and Perry, Tiananmen Papers, 118
27. Shaorong Huang, "The Power of Words: Political Slogans as Leverage in Conflict and Conflict Management during China's Cultural Revolution Movement," in G. Chen and R. Ma, eds., Chinese Conflict Management and Resolution (Westport, CT, 2002), 241-58
28. Link and Perry, Tiananmen Papers, 334
29. Ibid., 343-45
30. Nicholas D. Kristof, "Strained U.S. Ties Reported in China," New York Times, October 5, 1989.
31. "Deng Xiaoping and the April 26 Editorial," in Nathan and Link, The Tiananmen Papers, 71.
32. "We must take a firm stand against turmoil," Editorial, April 26, 1989, in Han, Cries for Democracy, 85
33. "Deng Xiaoping and the April 26 Editorial," in Nathan and Link, The Tiananmen Papers, 73. Zhao Ziyang later recorded that the editorial made it tremendously difficult for the government to move forward and to calm the students. Much of his conflict with Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng revolved around how to mitigate the impact of the editorial.
34. Craig Calhoun, Neither Gods nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China (Berkeley, CA, 1994, 49
35. "Deng Xiaoping's Remarks to Martial Law Officers on June 9," in Han, Cries for Democracy, 370
36. Cable, US Embassy to Secretary of State, May 18, 1989, Document 41, OA/ID CF01722, "New Student Protests Hit Chengdu," White House Office of Records Management: Subject File, White House Situation Room Files, China, Part 1 of 5, George Bush Presidential Library, College Station, Texas.
37. Cable, US Embassy Beijing to Secretary of State, May 22, 1989, CFO 1722-004, Subject: Chengdu Demonstrations Hit New Peak, George Bush Presidential Library.
38. Withdrawal/redaction sheet, Cable, May 19, 1989, CFO1755, American Consul Shenyang to Secretary of State, 200,000 Students and Supporters Demonstrate in Northeast, More than 1000 on Hunger Strike, George Bush Presidential Library.
39. Cable, US Embassy Beijing to Secretary of State, May 20, 1989, Subject: Guizhou Student Demonstrations, George Bush Presidential Library.
40. Cable, US Embassy Beijing to Secretary of State, May 29, 1989, CFO1722-008, Subject: Second Mammoth Pro-Democracy March in Hong Kong, George Bush Presidential Library.
41. Cable, US Ambassador James Lilley to Secretary of State, CFO 1722,-002, Subject: 15,000 to 20,000 in Hefei, George Bush Presidential Library.
42. Han, Cries for Democracy, 344.
43. Cable, Secretary of State, Washington D.C., to all East Asian and Pacific Diplomatic Posts, May 24, 1989, CFO1722-005, Subject: May 24 EAP Press Summary, George Bush Presidential Library.
44. Martin Walker, "NATO Is a Winner, Says Upbeat Bush," The Guardian (London), May 24, 1989
45. Jeffrey A. Engel, ed., The China Diary of George H. W. Bush: The Making of a Global President (Princeton, NJ, 2008).
46. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 94
47. Bush, All My Best, 429
48. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 90.
49. Ibid., 97.
50. Ibid., 89
51. Ibid., 106. See also the discussion of Scowcroft's visit to China in Bartholomew Sparrow's article in this issue of Diplomatic History.
52. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 107-08
53. Qian, Ten Episodes in China's Diplomacy, 132-39
54. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 98
55. Ibid., http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3749869.stm
56. "Hailing the Butchers of Beijing," New York Times, December 12, 1989, http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/12/opinion/hailing-the-butchers-of-beijing.html.
57. James Mann, About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, From Nixon to Clinton (New York, 1999), 193.
58. Party Secretary Zhao Ziyang, the highest ranking Chinese leader who had been sympathetic to the students, lived the rest of his life under house arrest. When he died in 2005, the official response was muted, perhaps in fear that a similar movement would arise. Official press accounts did not even note that he had been a top political leader. So far, moves by some government leaders to rehabilitate his name and reputation have been unsuccessful.
59. Jim Mann argues that although President Bush overestimated the value of his "friendship" with China in helping to mitigate the subsequent events, it really did not matter, as the Tiananmen events had their own logic, and nothing coming from Washington was likely to alter the outcome. Mann, About Face, 193.
60. For an example of the lingering influence of this vision of China, see James Mann, The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression (New York, 2007).
61. Alan R. Kluver, "The Logic of New Media in International Affairs," New Media and Society 4, no. 4 (2002): 499-517.