1989年镇压 · Full chronicle and history

On October 7, 1989, East Germany still held a grand military parade, but due to crushing national debt and widespread public anger sparked by the leadership's support for the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, large-scale protests broke out. After Krenz took over as General Secretary, unable to turn the tide and blindly shaking hands with the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) further intensified conflicts, ultimately leading to reunification with West Germany less than a year later on October 3, 1990.

In October 1989, the people of East Germany staged mass demonstrations in Leipzig, Berlin, and other places. Honecker was forced to step down, the East German Communist Party formed a new Politburo, and Krenz took office as General Secretary.

According to Yu Maochun, declassified archives show that the East German secret police Stasi were deeply afraid of the spirit of the Tiananmen Movement spreading to East Germany, and once tried to prevent the protest movement from spreading, but it was too late.

According to Yu Maochun, in August 1989, two months after the June Fourth incident, East Germany's new General Secretary Krenz visited China and shook hands with Li Peng and Deng Xiaoping, a move that further inflamed the resistance sentiment of the East German people.

As a power crisis loomed, Deng Xiaoping used tanks and machine guns to suppress the student movement, blocking China's path to freedom and democracy.

At the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in June 1989, Zhao Ziyang was officially removed from the post of General Secretary. Before that, Deng Xiaoping had the Central Guard Group place Zhao Ziyang under house arrest, and Wen Jiabao, then director of the General Office of the CCP Central Committee, discovered that the Central Guard Bureau took orders only from the Central Military Commission.

According to Miles Yu, East German leader Erich Honecker was the only leader of a communist state who firmly supported the Chinese Communist Party's 1989 June Fourth massacre, and this became an important reason for the East German people's protests in Leipzig, Berlin and elsewhere.

In June 1989, Peng Liyuan, dressed in military uniform, sang “The Most Beloved People” loudly before the martial law enforcement troops on Chang’an Avenue; overseas disclosures claim that this act became her political pledge of loyalty that won her favor with the senior leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Li Peng called Deng Xiaoping, suggesting convening an expanded Politburo meeting to implement the dismissal decision. Deng Xiaoping requested to wait until the army entered Beijing to hold the meeting.

After Li Peng announced martial law in Beijing, Jiang Zemin was the first to signal firm support for the martial law order to the Central Committee, sending a plaintext telegram in the early hours of May 20.

In the early hours of May 19, 1989, Wen Jiabao accompanied Zhao Ziyang to Tiananmen Square to visit the students on a hunger strike.

Deng Xiaoping convened a Politburo Standing Committee meeting at home to discuss whether to impose martial law in Beijing, and Zhao Ziyang explicitly stated that it could not be carried out.

On March 8, 1989, Li Peng issued a martial law decree for Lhasa on behalf of the State Council, following Deng Xiaoping's approval of martial law in Tibet, preventive arrests, and the decision that journalists and cadres could be shot on the spot; troops entered Lhasa on March 7.

Beginning on March 6, 1989, large numbers of armed police forces in Lhasa fired without warning at Tibetans gathered at the Jokhang Temple. Tibetans on retreat routes were ambushed, and Tibetans who had not taken part in the gathering were also strafed, provoking open opposition from the regional Party committee, people's congress, CPPCC, and public security department.

On March 2, 1989, a large number of Tibetans gathered in the square in front of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, shouting "down with corrupt officials," demanding the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet and the return of power to the Tibetan people. Hu Jintao dispatched armed police to clear the area, but it failed.

During the Lhasa crackdown in March 1989, in opposition to the indiscriminate shooting by armed police, more than 3000 Lhasa public security officers disobeyed orders and withdrew from the city, refusing to cooperate with the armed police.