Description

pp. xii, (2), 256, b/w illustrations, sketch map, “This is a comprehensive review and analysis of the causes and effects of the 1989 pro-democracy movement in the People’s Republic of China and its bloody climax. Cheng explains how the display of power by student-led masses threatened the Deng regime and triggered intra-Party strife that entangled the students, making a peaceful resolution difficult. He describes the elaborate cover-up by the government and incidentally corrects mistaken reporting by Western media, including stories of clashes on the outskirts of Beijing that he claims never took place. Providing a broad historical context to the 1989 turmoil, Cheng shows that the movement–like the uprisings in Eastern Europe five months later–developed from grievances that had been suppressed for decades. He concludes that the June 4 massacre brought economic reform to an abrupt halt, damaged the Beijing government’s international status and was “completely unnecessary and unjustified.” The book is an authoritative piece of scholarship by the chairman of the Asian studies committee at Ball State University, Indiana.”