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PARTISAN REVIEW
ofcommunication.
As heavy news coverage showed the world, the imposition of martial
law was a failure. Troops were met on the periphery of Beijing by "ordinary
people" (iaobaixing) who took it upon themselves to act as citizens rather
than the government's masses. As the story was repeated by surprised and
deeply moved students, it seemed that in every neighborhood it was an old
woman who placed herself in front of troop trucks, saying they would have
to run her over if they were to move against the protesting students. Buses
and bicycle barriers were drawn across the road to serve as barricades;
troops were at least unwilling
if
not precisely unable to move forward against
such opposition. Having been kept in the dark about the nature of events in
Beijing and apparently the purpose of their own maneuvers, they seemed
bewildered and chagrined by the popular resistance. They were greeted as
friends by the crowds, but denied privacy and subjected to never-ending
"education" about the current situation.
From May 20th to June 2d, to live in Beijing was to ride an emotional
roller coaster. Popular participation in protest ebbed and flowed . At first,
people stayed up all night on barricades, waiting to defend the city against the
army. The Paris Commune sprang not only to my mind but to those oflo–
cals, especially older ones who had read a bit more Marx than today's stu–
dents. Of course people grew tired, and the immediate military threat
seemed to pass. Rumors spread of both popular victory and an imminent
crackdown; a military coup and a siege of the city. As the apparent stale–
mate continued, eyes turned towards the internal power struggles of the
government. Would Zhao Ziyang lead reformers to a new and secure domi–
nance? Or would the old guard and its proteges such as Premier
Li
Peng oust
the others as too sympathetic to students, capitalism, and the West? As
crowds shrank, the movement appeared to be weakening. As before, leaders
discussed the possibility of unilaterally declaring victory and putting the
strategic ball back in the government's court. However, they could not reach
agreement on this, perhaps because there seemed no way to withdraw from
the Square without appearing to have weakened or lost resolve. On May
26th the erection of the "Goddess of Democracy" statue gave the move–
ment a new focal point and new energy.
By then, students from outside Beijing outnumbered those from the
cities' own universities. And much of the time, especially in the final days be–
fore the massacre, students were outnumbered by others, mostly young
male workers, many (I was told) unemployed. They gave the crowd a much
surlier tone and greatly diminished the student activists' ability to maintain
order and a peaceful response to
military
provocation.
New troops had been brought to Beijing; the rumor spread that they
