Tiananmen Incident Totally Explained

Everything about April Fifth Movement totally explained

The Tiananmen Incident (Sìwǔ Tiān'ānmén shìjiàn, "April 5 Tian'anmen Incident") took place on April 5, 1976 in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. It was a protest against the repression of the Chinese regime nearing the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Cause

The death of Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai on January 8, 1976 prompted the protest. Zhou Enlai was a widely respected senior Chinese leader. For several years before his death, he was involved in a political power struggle with other senior leaders in the Politburo of the Communist Party of China. Premier Zhou's most visible and powerful antagonists were the so-called Gang of Four. The leader of the gang, Jiang Qing, was married to Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong. To defuse an expected popular outpouring of sentiment at Zhou's death, the Communist Party of China limited the period of public mourning; for example, the national flag was lowered to half-mast for only one hour.

Mourning

In Chinese culture, people celebrate the 106th day after the winter solstice as Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day. In 1976, the Qing Ming festival fell on April 5. Even before the Qing Ming holiday that year, citizens who mourned Premier Zhou's death began to place paper wreaths and white paper chrysanthemums at the foot of the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square. On April 4, for example, hundreds and thousands of Beijing residents came to the square to lay wreaths at the Monument. Hundreds of mourners posted handwritten poems there as well. Many of the poems seemed to refer to and commemorate ancient Chinese historical events, but most were intended to criticize China's current leaders. It was an indirect way of expression without compromising the possibility of arrest by security forces (see Jan Wong's account of these poems in Red China Blues). An example is a poem implicitly criticizing Jiang Qing by attacking the Empress Wu Zetian, a 7th century Tang Dynasty empress who ruled after her husband died.
The large number of mourners and intensity of the public outpouring of sentiment alarmed government and Communist Party officials. The Politburo met in emergency sessions in the Great Hall of the People, which lies a few yards west of Tiananmen Square. The leaders decided to remove all the wreaths, flowers, and poems. Public security forces acted during the night of April 4-5 cleaned the area around the Monument. On April 5, tens of thousands of Beijing residents returned to the Monument in Tiananmen Square and were dismayed to find the wreaths and other commemorative materials removed. In addition, public security officers cordoned off the area around the Monument, preventing mourners from approaching.

Government response

China's leaders, namely Jiang Qing (Mao Zedong's wife) and Mao Yuanxin, saw the popular gathering as a threat to the forward movement of the Cultural Revolution. They consulted with Party Chairman Mao Zedong, claiming these people to be "capitalist-roaders" who were hitting back at the Proletarian Revolution. Action was taken on the night of April 5, when the number of mourners were a few thousand. Controlled by Jiang Qing and the mayor of Bejing, the militia encircled the area, then went in with clubs and nightsticks to drive the people away from the monument.
The media subsequently linked the event to Deng Xiaoping, then carrying out the daily duties of the Premier. It was rumored that the Gang of Four had become apprehensive of Deng's influence and thus attempted his removal. Deng was an ally of Zhou Enlai, and was placed under house arrest in Guangzhou. After Mao's death and the fall of the Gang of Four in October 1976, Party leaders rehabilitated Deng and brought him back to Beijing, where he emerged as China's paramount leader in 1978.

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