CIVICUS speaks with exiled Chinese human rights defender Zhou Fengsuo on the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
On 4 June 1989, the Chinese government deployed the military and cracked down on protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, killing thousands of peaceful democracy protesters, and arrested tens of thousands in cities across China. To this day, the government has never acknowledged the massacre happened.
Soon after the protests, Zhou, a student leader at the time, was put on the government’s most wanted list and forced into exile. He’s now executive director of Human Rights in China, a civil society organisation (CSO) founded in March 1989 by Chinese students in the USA. He’s also the co-founder and president of Humanitarian China.
What that led to the emergence of China’s democracy movement, and how did you become involved?
A key factor was the death of Hu Yaobang, a reformist who had been removed from the leadership by hardliners such as Deng Xiaoping, who saw him as too sympathetic towards students. His death was the immediate trigger, because he symbolised the possibility of political reform from within. He wasn’t ready for democracy, but was in favour of more freedoms. That’s why we mourned his death.
In 1989 I was a physics student at Tsinghua University, and on 15 April I was among the first students who went to Tiananmen Square to lay a flower at the Monument to the People’s Heroes, located at the centre of the square, to mourn Hu Yaobang’s death. And I was one of the last to leave the square as the tanks rolled in. I also became a leader of the independent student organisation at my university and eventually represented Tsinghua University in the Federation of Independent Student Unions.
At the time communism was collapsing internationally, in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, where Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Communist Party, was pushing for openness and transparency. This outside influence also motivated us. In the end, I think the protests and the massacre that followed contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
How did the protests and their repression unfold?
The protests grew very quickly. Only 50 days passed from the day I first went to Tiananmen Square until the day it was over. At the beginning there were thousands of students. Then we became tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands. From 13 May, there was a hunger strike and an occupation of Tiananmen Square that continued until the massacre.
In Beijing, the democracy movement was supported by people from all walks of life, including workers, teachers, civil society groups and religious groups including Christians and Buddhists. Even some Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members and government officials supported us. Millions of people took part in the peaceful protests in Beijing and many other cities, large and small.
By coming together, people encouraged each other and felt increasingly energised. They were emboldened to openly and peacefully demand reforms from the CCP. There was consensus on two main issues. One was press freedom. The other was the disclosure of the family assets of government officials as a way of fighting corruption.
On the day of the massacre, it felt like being in the middle of a war. I saw tanks and military vehicles moving in all directions. I was among the last to leave Tiananmen Square, but kept hearing gunshots all night long. At one point, I saw 40 bodies in a bicycle shed outside a hospital.
What happened to you after the crackdown?
I fled to my hometown but then a most wanted list was broadcast nationally and I was on it. I was arrested and spent a year in Qincheng Prison, a high-security jail in Beijing. After I was released, I was forced into a re-education programme for a year. Then I was denied a passport for four years, even though I had a scholarship to study physics abroad. Eventually I was able to leave China in January 1995 and came to the USA.
What’s the legacy of the 1989 democracy movement?
The students and Chinese people in general showed there was a strong desire for freedom and democracy. And they did it in a very peaceful and orderly way. I think that shocked the whole world and inspired generations.
The brutal massacre however made the CCP turn away from reform. It also learned that this kind of brutality would be forgotten, if not ignored, by democratic countries like the USA. This emboldened it to commit further human rights abuses against Uyghurs, Tibetans and people in Hong Kong. The CCP once had a chance to reform itself, but the massacre put an end to that possibility. The Tiananmen massacre set the regime on the path it is still on today.
What’s the state of civil society in China today?
Every leader since the Tiananmen massacre has been chosen for their loyalty to the party above all else. That’s the case of Deng Xiaoping, who was widely seen as a reformer in democratic countries, as well as Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and the current leader, Xi Jinping.
I think most so-called China watchers have deliberately ignored the Tiananmen massacre and the ongoing persecution of political prisoners because they’ve seen China as a partner for trade and investment, which has partly enabled it to become the digital dystopia it is today.
The regime uses the most sophisticated technology to control society. It monitors people and gatherings, both physical and virtual, which discourages the formation of any kind of civil society groups.
Of course, some forms of activism have continued. In the immediate aftermath of the 1989 protests, many organisations were formed to oppose the CCP, but between 1989 and 1995 people associated with them were arrested across China. In 1998, the China Democracy Party was founded. It had members in every major Chinese city and officially demanded the right to be an opposition party. In retaliation, hundreds of people were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.
At the same time, the Falun Gong religious movement formed and began its resistance, which continues to this day. Later came the New Citizens’ Movement, lawyers’ groups, the labour movement and the feminist movement. They are all trying to bring about political change, and they are all being suppressed as we speak.
There’s still resistance and people are still trying to find ways to mobilise, although it’s all not being reported. For example, every year people are arrested for commemorating the Tiananmen massacre. Whether in public or in private, people keep trying. The most recent protest movement was the White Paper protest in 2022, which resulted in the complete reversal of the government’s zero-COVID-19 policy.
What support do Chinese democracy activists, in China and in exile, need from the international community?
We need the support of every organisation that can raise awareness of human rights abuses in China, because China is the dominant trading partner of most countries in the world. And China is infiltrating and corrupting democratic values in every country. Every country needs to be aware of the cost of dealing with China.
It’s very important for people to remember Tiananmen and the human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, Tibetans and Hongkongers, because the CCP regime will never change and has an ambition of global dominance. Now we all know that China’s economic development has come at the expense of human rights. The stronger the CCP becomes, the greater its threat to the world. We must confront it wherever possible.
There is also a very active Chinese diaspora community in many countries, which faces very strong transnational repression from the CCP, which operates both remotely and on the ground. Host countries must protect the rights of exiled activists from being violated by CCP agents.
There’s also a very vibrant online community, with about 50 to 100 million users on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and Twitter. This is the place to fight against CCP brainwashing and censorship – not only of opinions but of facts. It is the place where what happened in Tiananmen Square 35 years ago can be acknowledged and discussed. Through VPNs, this information can be shared with millions of people in China.
Civic space in China is rated ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor.
Get in touch with Human Rights in China through its website and follow @ZhouFengSuo on Twitter.
