November 9, 1989: The Berlin Wall Is Breached
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall in East Berlin was broken through by the public, and the East German Communist regime accelerated its collapse.
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall in East Berlin was broken through by the public, and the East German Communist regime accelerated its collapse.
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 13th CCP Central Committee, held in November 1989, decided that Jiang Zemin would succeed Deng Xiaoping as Chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission.
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.
Two months after the June Fourth Incident, James Chao met Jiang Zemin in Zhongnanhai, one of the earliest publicly recorded meetings between the Chao family and China's top leader.
With the support and nomination of Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin became General Secretary at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th CCP Central Committee, and that same year he took over as Chairman of the Central Military Commission.
During the 1989 protests, because he advocated resolving issues within the framework of democracy and the legal system, Zhao Ziyang was stripped of all his posts by Deng Xiaoping and subsequently placed under house arrest in Fuqiang Alley, Beijing, for fifteen years until his death from illness.
After the 1989 June Fourth, Deng Xiaoping appointed Jiang Zemin as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
On June 21, 1989, Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong, who had been sentenced to death in the Guangxin Road crossing incident in Shanghai, were executed. They had been sentenced to death in the first instance on June 15, and the West German ambassador to China had called for the three not to be put to death.
In June 1989, the Shanghai High People's Court rejected the appeals of Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong, upholding the death sentences; the three were executed on June 21. The specific date of the second instance was reported to be around June 20.
On June 15, 1989, the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong to death in the first instance, to be executed immediately, with political rights stripped for life; only 9 days elapsed from the case on June 6 to the verdict.
Afterwards, Deng Xiaoping issued a victory proclamation, defining the June Fourth incident as a counter-revolutionary riot.
After the Guangxin Road crossing incident, Shanghai police arrested those involved, including Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong. English-language materials say 11 people were arrested at the scene; the claim of dozens of arrests and nighttime raids from June 7 to 9 could not be verified.
At 20:43 on the evening of June 6, 1989, Train No. 161 traveling from Beijing to Shanghai entered the Guangxin Road railway crossing in Putuo District and plowed into a crowd gathered to mourn the victims of June Fourth and protest the massacre, killing 6 people and seriously injuring 6 others. The tragedy enraged the people at the scene; tens of thousands gathered in protest, train carriages were set on fire, and Beijing–Shanghai railway traffic was cut off. The incident is known as the "Guangxin Road Crossing Incident" or the "Shanghai June 6 Incident."
On the night of June 4, 1989, CCTV Evening News anchors Du Xian and Xue Fei wore dark clothing, speaking in extremely slow and subdued tones to broadcast the news of martial law troops entering the city, and were subsequently transferred from their posts.
Chinese students and citizens gathered in Beijing Tiananmen Square to demand reforms, anti-corruption measures, and freedom, and were met with a military crackdown by troops and tanks.
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.
On June 15, 1989, Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong were sentenced to death in the first instance by the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court for June Fourth, and were executed by firing squad on June 20, faster than in Beijing.
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.
On the eve of the June Fourth (Tiananmen) crackdown, Zhao Ziyang drafted a telegram requesting Wan Li to return to China and convene the NPC Standing Committee to veto the martial law decree. Wen Jiabao, director of the General Office of the CCP Central Committee, suppressed the telegram and prevented it from being sent on the grounds that the procedures were not compliant.
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 meeting at home and decided to remove Zhao Ziyang from the position of General Secretary. Zhao Ziyang and Hu Qili were not notified of this meeting.
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.
Deng Xiaoping personally summoned the heads of the major military regions and branches, beginning the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of field troops to gather around Beijing.
On May 4, 1989, reporters and editors from the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, Guangming Daily, and China Youth Daily took to Chang'an Avenue, carrying banners demanding that the news must tell the truth.
During the June Fourth turmoil of 1989, Zhu Rongji broke with convention by appearing on television to make an appeal, saying that Shanghai was different from Beijing and that troops and police would not be deployed, and stating that no one could conceal the historical facts; this footage was later circulated repeatedly.
Over 200,000 students and 1 million citizens took to the streets, holding the famous "April 27th Grand Parade" in support of the student movement.
People’s Daily published an editorial titled “We must unequivocally oppose this unrest,” labeling the student movement as unrest.
Deng Xiaoping officially made the decision to label the students' actions as "turmoil against the Party and socialism" and established a leading group to quell the turmoil.
Deng Xiaoping summoned Premier of the State Council Li Peng, labeling it as "turmoil", setting the tone for the subsequent clearing operation.
Before his visit to North Korea, Zhao Ziyang consulted Deng Xiaoping, and Deng Xiaoping promised that after returning to China he would be appointed Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and agreed to the visit.
In April 1989, Hu Yaobang suffered a massive myocardial infarction during a Politburo meeting and passed away shortly after. His death directly triggered the subsequent 1989 Student Movement.
On April 8, 1989, Hu Yaobang suffered a heart attack at a Politburo meeting in Huairentang; Wen Jiabao directed the rescue and accompanied him to the hospital.
Because the World Economic Herald published an article commemorating Hu Yaobang, Shanghai Municipal Party Secretary Jiang Zemin ordered the article pulled and suspended editor-in-chief Qin Benli for self-reflection, sparking protests by journalists and students.
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.
When meeting with U.S. President George H.W. Bush in Beijing, Deng Xiaoping stated that the overriding issue for China's problems is the need for stability; without a stable environment, nothing can be accomplished.
U.S. President George Bush visited Beijing, and his plan to invite dissident Fang Lizhi and his wife to a dinner was intercepted by Chinese police.
On the morning of February 7, 1989, the Snow Lion flag symbolizing Tibetan independence was raised in the main hall of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. More than 200 Lhasa police tried to force their way in to seize the flag but were driven out by the crowd. When the armed police returned the next day, the flag had already been hidden by Tibetans; the armed police took away more than 20 people and seized belongings to use as evidence.
Six communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed one after another within a few months, and the Berlin Wall, symbolizing the Cold War division, fell almost overnight, providing historical experience for the political transitions that followed.
In 1989, Zhao Ziyang bluntly told visiting Gorbachev that Deng Xiaoping was the absolute authority ruling from behind the curtain. During the June Fourth period, as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, he was unwilling to order the massacre, and was therefore politically purged.