Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article: A1390-W995

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1390-W995

Release Date: June 2, 2021

发布日：2021年6月2日

Topic: 1989 Democracy Movement Was the Turning Point of China's Modernization -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：八九六四是中国现代化的转折点 -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

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1989 Democracy Movement Was the Turning Point of China's Modernization

-- Wei Jingsheng

From April to June 1989, large-scale mass protests took place in Beijing and spread to major cities across the country. A rough estimate reached the scale of several million people per day. Beijing alone had more than one million people every day. The protesting masses were in good order and there was no beating, smashing, and looting. In the absence of police, there were no major traffic accidents. This demonstrates the good qualities of the Chinese people, and also demonstrates the determination of all the Chinese to fight corruption and move toward democracy.

There were also a large number of officials within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who sympathized with the demands of the students and the masses, and also opposed the suppression of mass movements. At the highest level, there were Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang and a group of senior generals. At the most basic level, there were most of the ordinary CCP members and cadres. My rough statistics from the TV news indicated that, except the CCP Central Committee, almost all the CCP organs participated in the marches with their banners. It can be said that the hearts of the CCP members and the Chinese people were on the side of the students who instigated the movement. Even the so-called Red Second Generation, which were often criticized by the Hong Kong and Taiwan media, were in the vanguard of supporting the student movement.

A friend told me a joke afterwards. In the Poly Building where many CCP cadres and children gathered, there was a flatterer who saw the CCP suppression in 1989 as an opportunity and shouted in the corridor: It is good to suppress! Several angry people covered his head with clothes and said they would throw him out the window of the high rise building. He was so scared that he cried and said: I was just joking. Please don't take it seriously.

There is another joke that is more expressive. There are several buildings outside Fuxing Gate in Beijing for high level CCP officials. Among these people there was an old Marxist-Leninist lady, who held her grandson at the window, and shouting loudly at the army that was shooting to suppress the people: Good shots, good shots! As a result, the soldiers, who could not hear what she was chanting but thought they were reactionary slogans, shot the child leaving him in disability for life. After that, all the veteran cadres in that building, including the doorman, would seriously say when they met her: Good shots, good shots.

Do you think these tales are just jokes? But they are true stories. They show that the vast majority of people at that time, regardless of their status, stood on the side of the students and the masses who supported them. The few people who were abnormal become a joke to the masses. Some people may argue that these stories are what I learned from others and they don't count. Do you need evidence and witnesses? Then I will talk about what I encountered directly.

At that time, the TV in the prison where I was only broadcast the news summaries. After the news summaries, there were scenes of the execution of rebel prisoners in order to deter all prisoners. But during the June 4th period, everyone was concerned about the situation on the Tiananmen Square. A few young policemen, holding sacks and wooden sticks, went to threaten the guy in charge of the broadcasting machine for the TV: Are you going to turn off the broadcast again today? The guy was so frightened that he said: That was a rule set up by the prison head and it was none of my business. Now I locked the door to the machine and threw the key on the roof. So these people let him go. Thus, we were able to watch the CCTV broadcasting all day long, until July 1989.

An older prison guard was watching the TV with me all day. He saw and heard the loudspeaker in Tiananmen Square announcing loudly: Do not worry, the people's army will not shoot at the people. The old prison guard stomped the prison ground with me and said: To trust it is too stupid. The CCP will definitely shoot at the people. How come no one tells this group of silly students who have not grown up? The premise of his saying was that the students' demands for anti-corruption and democracy were reasonable and legal, but according to the laws of the Chinese Communist Party, it will surely shoot and suppress them. This story illustrates that even these old CCP members who were chosen to guard me, a counter-revolutionary, were on the side of students and citizens in their hearts.

The reason why the influence of the 1989 democracy movement was so widespread and had won the approval of the vast majority of the people is because the perverse actions of the two terms of Chinese Communists leaders from Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping had been opposed by the people of the whole country. Even most members within the Chinese Communist Party also agreed with the demands for democracy and anti-corruption. This movement was a turning point in where Chinese society was headed. It was an important juncture to choose democracy by the people or to continue with the autocratic dictatorship.

The Deng Xiaoping clique suppressed the 1989 movement through brutal massacres, which lead to the dictatorship that continued for several more decades. Now the Chinese people have become more and more intolerant of the political system of a dictatorship. A new choice is coming. The 1989 democratic movement has laid a solid foundation of popular support and public opinion for the new choice.

(This English version is translated by Ciping HUANG, without any compensation. Wei Jingsheng and the Wei Jingsheng Foundation appreciate her decades of contribution, especially for allowing the use and distribution of her translations of these commentaries.)

Original link of the commentary broadcasted by Radio Free Asia:

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-06022021134414.html

To hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's related commentary, please visit:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2021/WeiJS210602on1989movement.mp3

(Written on May 31 and recorded on June 2, 2021. Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia on June 2, 2021.)

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中文版

Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article: A1390-W995

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1390-W995

Release Date: June 2, 2021

发布日：2021年6月2日

Topic: 1989 Democracy Movement Was the Turning Point of China's Modernization -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：八九六四是中国现代化的转折点 -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问：

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2021/report2021-6/WeiJS210602on1989movementA1390-W995.htm

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八九六四是中国现代化的转折点

-- 魏京生

一九八九年四月到六月，在北京发生了大规模的群众抗议，并且扩展到全国各大城市。粗略估算达到了每天几百万人的规模。光是北京每天就有超过百万人的规模。游行抗议的群众秩序良好，没有打砸抢。在没有警察的情况下，也没有重大交通事故。这展现了中国人良好的素质，也展现了全民一致反腐败、要民主的决心。

中共内部也有大批官员同情学生和群众的诉求，反对镇压群众运动。最高层有胡耀邦、赵紫阳和一批高级将领，最基层包括大部分普通党员和干部。我在电视上粗略地统计，除了中共中央委员会以外，几乎所有中共机关都打着横幅参加了游行的队伍。可以说，党心民心都站在了挑起运动的学生们的一边，包括被港台媒体批判的所谓红二代，更是支持学生运动的急先锋。

事后有一个朋友告诉我一个笑话。在干部子弟云集的保利大厦内，有一位马屁精看时机来了，在楼道里大喊：镇压得好，镇压得好。几个愤怒的群众拿衣服把他的头一蒙，就说要把他从楼上窗户里扔下去。吓得他哭喊着说：我说着玩的，说着玩的，你们别当真。

还有一个笑话更传神。复兴门外有几座高干楼，其中有一位马列主义老太太，抱着孙子在窗户口，大声对着正在开枪镇压人民的军队喊道：打得好，打得好。结果听不清楚的军人以为她在喊反动口号，顺手一枪打在了小孩的身上，留下了终生残疾。这之后全楼的老干部包括看门大爷，碰到她都会认真地说：打得好，打得好。

您以为是笑话吧？但这都是真实的故事。这说明当时绝大多数人，不管什么身份，都是站在学生和支持学生的群众一边。少数神经不正常的人就是群众的一个笑话。有人会说你那都是听来的，不算数，要证据知道吗？那我就说说我直接遇到的。

当时我所在的劳改队的电视只转播新闻联播，之后就是一段枪毙造反的劳改犯的镜头，以便震慑所有劳改犯。但六四那段时间大家都关心广场上的形势。就有几个年轻的警察拿着麻袋和木棍，找到管理转播器的家伙问他：今天还关转播器吗？吓得他说：那是领导的规定，不关我的事，现在我把门锁上钥匙扔到房顶上了。大家才放过他。这以后一直到七月份，我们可以整天看中央电视台的节目了。

和我一起整天看电视的老警察，看到广场喇叭大声宣布说：请大家放心，人民的军队不会对人民开枪的。老警察和我一起跺着脚说：太傻了，共产党一定会开枪，怎么没人告诉这帮毛都没长齐的傻学生呢？说这话的前提是；学生们反腐败、要民主的诉求是合理合法的，但是按照共产党的规律是一定会开枪镇压。说明连这些挑选看管我这个反革命的老党员们，内心也是站在学生和市民的一边。

1989这场运动的影响之所以这么广泛，赢得了绝大多数人民的认同，是因为从毛泽东到邓小平的两届中国共产党的的倒行逆施，已经遭到了全国人民的反对。包括共产党内的大多数人，也认同要民主、反腐败的诉求。这场运动就是中国社会走向何方的一个转折点，就是一个选择继续专制独裁，还是人民民主的重要关头。

邓小平集团靠残酷屠杀镇压了运动，导致独裁专制又延续了几十年。现在人民已经越来越难以忍受独裁专制的政治体制。新的选择即将来临，八九六四的民主运动，给新的选择打下了深厚的人心和舆论的基础。

(本评论的英文版本由黄慈萍翻译。魏京生和魏京生基金会感谢她数十年来有关的无偿贡献，特别是使用和发布此译文的许可。)

本篇评论在自由亚洲电台的原始链接：

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-06022021134414.html