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PARTISAN REVIEW
vehicles; occasionally an explosion indicated that another had been set on
fire. We were all uncertain what would happen next. The possibility of civil
war was discussed, particularly as it appeared that the 38th army might op–
pose the 27th which had perpetrated the massacre. By June 7th it was clear
that this was not going to happen. The government began to recompose it–
self, the hard-liners and their associates'to consolidate victory over more lib–
eral Party forces.
The writing of an official history began with the transformation of sol–
diers who had died during the invasion into martyrs. It was variously de–
clared that no students had been killed or that the number was small; care–
fully phrased statements indicated that no one had been shot in Tiananmen
Square; dead protesters were described as hooligans, thugs, and
troublemakers, not students. Pressure was placed on the public to identify and
turn in protest leaders who had gone into hiding, and anyone who had been
identified as telling foreign reporters what they thought had actually
happened. At least one of these has since been convicted of "rumor-monger–
ing" and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. Never has the Orwellian im–
agery of 1984 seemed more apt. China has both versions ofWinston Smith:
those who send historical knowledge down the "memory hole" in the service
of bureaucratic truth, and those who try to keep alive the simple message
that two plus two equals four. This movement has blessed the latter with
first-hand knowledge among a wide segment ofChina's urban population, and
with a substantial documentary record, though this is primarily held abroad
and not currently available to the Chinese people.
The 1989 student protest lasted only six weeks. Though its roots
were old, and some of its ideas had been under intensive discussion for
months, its great accomplishment was massive mobilization, not theoretical
deepening of Chinese democracy. Essentially, the protesters pursued three
sorts of goals; democracy, economic improvement, and an end to corruption.
However, democracy was the main concern of university students and
intellectuals, but not ofmost workers. Ordinary people were more interested
in
economic issues. They
all
complained about corruption.
When students talked about democracy, they often disappointed West–
erners who expected them to place multiparty elections at the top of their
priorities. But though many students thought such elections a good thing,
civil
liberties loomed much larger in their immediate vision of democracy. They
were struggling for freedom of expression through speech and the press,
freedom of association, especially in their independent students' association,
and ultimately for a greater freedom in conducting the affairs of their own
lives. As budding intellectuals, they sought to carry on a discourse about the
future of China and especially to offer advice to the government and to be
