35 Years Later: A Retrospective of Our Work on the 1989 Tiananmen Protests and Crackdown

This year is the 35th anniversary of the 1989 mass demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and elsewhere around China, and their brutal suppression on June 4. The memories of these events are receding into the past, a process greatly aided in China by censorship. And even when remembered, the crackdown that ended the optimistic 1980s in China is viewed by some Chinese government supporters as justified. On June 4, 2021, Hu Xijin, the former editor of the state-owned Global Times, tweeted the following:

"The conclusion on June 4 incident will never be reversed in Chinese history because its political outcome played a role in shaping socialist path with Chinese characteristics, which has led China to success. The longer the time, the more resolutely the incident will be rejected."

But others see crushing of “the incident” as the end of the hope for a more open China, and the final rejection by the ruling Communist Party of a more liberal politics. However, exiled activists and others in cities around the world continue to commemorate and draw inspiration from the protest movement.

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