ANDREW J. NATHAN is Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science at Columbia Univer-
sity. This essay is adapted from his introduction to Zuihou de mimi: Zhonggong shisanjie
sizhong quanhui “liusi” jielun wengao (The Last Secret: The Final Documents From the June
Fourth Crackdown; New Century Press, 2019).80 μ£¥³¤ ¬μμ¬
The New Tiananmen
Papers
Inside the Secret Meeting That
Changed China
Andrew J. Nathan
O
n April 15, 1989, the popular Chinese leader Hu Yaobang died
o a heart attack in Beijing. Two years earlier, Hu had been
cashiered from his post as general secretary o the Chinese
Communist Party for being too liberal. Now, in the days after his
death, thousands o students from Beijing campuses gathered in Tian-
anmen Square, in central Beijing, to demand that the party give him a
proper sendo. By honoring Hu, the students expressed their dissat-
isfaction with the corruption and inÁation that had developed during
the ten years o “reform and opening” under the country’s senior
leader, Deng Xiaoping, and their disappointment with the absence o
political liberalization. Over the next seven weeks, the party leaders
debated among themselves how to respond to the protests, and they
issued mixed signals to the public. In the meantime, the number o
demonstrators increased to perhaps as many as a million, including
citizens from many walks oÊ life. The students occupying the square
declared a hunger strike, their demands grew more radical, and dem-
onstrations spread to hundreds o other cities around the country.
Deng decided to declare martial law, to take eect on May 20.
But the demonstrators dug in, and Deng ordered the use o force
to commence on the night o June 3. Over the next 24 hours, hun-
dreds were killed, i not more; the precise death toll is still unknown.Return to Table of Contents