In 1989, the courageous people of China stunned the world with one of the greatest acts of civil disobedience in the 20th century. These events helped bring democracy to communist China, but not without major consequences. When people think of Tiananmen, they remember the massacre, infact, Tiananmen Square was a manifest of civil disobedience that showed courage and strength to stand up against a cruel government. The civil disobedience at Tiananmen Square proved to be productive in sparking protests for democracy and reforming China’s communist regime. As a result of Hu Yaobang’s death, people began to protest all across China demanding democracy in the then communist China. People gathered in Tiananmen Square after the death of Hu Yaban. …show more content…
On June 5, 1989, The United States President, George Bush, imposes suspension of government sales, exports of weapons, and stop all official visits to China. Other countries impose similar sanctions on China as well. The amount they executed is unknown, but is thought to be several thousand. (“Tiananmen Square 1989: The declassified history”). After Tiananmen died down, the Chinese officials began to reform the government. As a result of the massacre, many high-ranking officials resigned as a consolation for those who died. After Tiananmen, the government, with some new officials, realized some of the mistakes made by Zhao Ziyang. Who they believed handled the situation completely wrong and inhuman(Nathan and Link 431). In other words, Though they felt mistakes were made, the Chinese government never fully took responsibility for the events at Tiananmen Square. The Chinese authorities cannot bring back the innocent lives of the Chinese people who died fighting for democracy, whether they felt it was right or wrong. According to the Chinese government, 241 civilians died at Tiananmen and 40 soldiers. Many believe these numbers to be false, a recent study estimates that several thousand died at the square and many more died when the chinese arrested thousands for their civil disobedience( Nathan and Link 437). These numbers may be horrific, but thanks to their incredible act of civil disobedience, change was brought to China. More democracy came later to the communist nation as a result of Tiananmen Square. Also, the events at Tiananmen Square caused change in the government leadership and resignation of many party
The Political Turmoil of China From 1911 to 1927 There were many reasons why China slipped into political instability or turmoil between 1911 and 19287. There reasons include the questionable leadership of Yuan Shih Kai, the presence of the warlords, the One of the reasons was that questionable leadership of Yuan Shih Kai. When Yuan took over control from Sun Yat Sen as the President, he tried to revert to the monarchical system of rule. From 1912 until 1915, he ruled as a military dictator with the support of the army. His rule was already blemished with resistance and that demonstrated that the people did not quite accept him as the leader of China.
A good change in political life is the period of disunity following the fall of the Han. There were various factions. People are not cooperating or listening. There is disunity and instability. The fall of the Han dynasty in 220 was certainly a major change in the political life of China from 100 CE to 600 CE. The Han dynasty fell as a result of political unrest. Although there was a great economic success during the Han ruling there were several groups fighting for the political power. A peasant uprising overthrew the Han dynasty. Also heavy taxation led to revolts from the people. At 100 CE the Han were firmly in power but then around 220 CE they were out of power, so that is quite a change of political life.
Ever since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the legitimacy of the revolution of which it was built upon has perennially been in question. For example, in a 1999 issue of the International Herald Tribune, a prestigious scholar claimed that all of China’s tragedies are ‘sustained by a mistaken belief in the correctness of the 1949 revolution’ and that the future progress of China depends on the recognition that the revolution was a failure. However, the CCP government was certainly not perfect and its most significant failures were its political failures such as the Anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution and also economic failures such as the great leap forward. Millions of peoples were falsely accused and persecuted during the political movements of the Mao period as the CCP focused on class struggle instead of economic development during the period and tens of Millions of peoples died due to starvation as there were widespread food shortages during the great leap forward movement.
of the rape of a 14 year old girl by twenty GIs ... in front of the
On March 16, 1968, in the Quang Ngai region of Vietnam, specifically My Lai, the United States military was involved in an appalling slaughter of approximately 500 Vietnamese civilians. There are numerous arguments as to why this incident even had the capacity to occur. Although some of the arguments seem valid, can one really make excuses for the slaughter of innocent people? The company that was responsible for the My Lai incident was the Charlie Company, and throughout the company, there were many different accounts of what happened that reprehensible day. Therefore, there are a few contradictions about what had occurred, such as what the commanding officers' exact instructions for the soldiers were.
...) and bring China under uniform thought as well. Thus, in his attempt to accomplish his goals he placed less emphasis on freedom and more on developing a sturdy political backbone. Deng, on the other hand, wanted to thrust China in the global community for economic fortune at the expense of everything Mao had established. In the process, he brought a freedom and wave of democracy to the People's Republic, endowing the Chinese citizens with dreams of wealth and prosperity that were never even considered in the time of Mao. As China, progresses further into the twenty first century, its role seems quite unclear. A return to Post-revolutionary authoritarian communism seems unlikely, as does the institution of a true democracy but perhaps a new form of stability will arise to grant greater liberty to individuals or possibly even another Tiannenmen lurking in the future.
China’s policy of political imprisonment is a clear act of genocide. It is used to incite bodily and mental harm and inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Tibetan people. At times imprisonment even results in death. These crimes are all accomplished under the guise of being legal in Chinese law. A statement made by Amnesty International in 1996 cites these abuses:
Despite the death of Mao in 1976 and the trial of the Gang of Four in 1980, the Cultural Revolution continues to hold significant influence over China’s political decisions. This is particularly evident in 1989, during the Tiananmen Incident. Despite the celebration of the May Fourth student movement as the catalyst in the formation of the Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping (a victim of the Cultural Revolution) and other hardline Party members were adamantly against the gathering of students in Tiananmen Square. The experience of the Cultural Revolution has led Chinese political leaders to be cautious about large scale political movements, and student activism in particular. The lingering resonance of the Cultural Revolution is also evident in the fact that the CCP saw the need to address Mao’s responsibility while trying to maintain his legitimacy and importance as the ideological leader of the Party.
The Sino-Japanese War, 1931-45, left a big impact both on KMT and CCP. Mao took advantage of the situation and gained support by the locals as a leader and was recovered, planned and prepared by that time. Mao had improved his leadership skills compared to the First Civil War, however, Chiang Kai-shek kept on failing.
The China that Mao was born into was fast becoming a shell of its former past.
China is a communist country, whose citizens faced many difficult situations while trying to fight for their human rights. According to the “Freedom Rankings” from the database CountryWatch China is not a free country. Specifically the Political Rights and Civil Liberties are in their maximum numbers; this means that these rights are confiscated from the people. Therefore freedoms of press, expression, speech, religion, and movement are all severely limited in China. The government has also kept a close watch on art in China; Chinese art went through many different stages starting from the year 1842. But the massacre of Tiananmen Square in the year 1989 was a turning point in the political life of China and on the country's art. Until the year 1992 art in china was underground, but it kept expanding. As a result of that some Chinese artists started to do art works that rebel against their government and express their feelings towards China. One of these artist is the famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei who expressed in each piece of art he did, his feelings that China should let its people break away from the rotten traditional, in order to express their thoughts freely.
The Rape of Nanking, also known as the Nanking Massacre was a six week period when mass numbers of Chinese men and woman were killed by the Japanese. Embarrassed by the lack of effort in the war with China in Shanghai, the Japanese looked for revenge and finally were able to win the battle. The Japanese moved toward the city of Nanjing also known as Nanking and invaded it for approximately six months. Even though the people of Nanjing outnumbered the 50,000 Japanese, they were not as masterful in warfare as their opponents. Chinese soldiers were forced to surrender to the Japanese and the massacre began in which around 300,000 people died and 20,000 women were raped. The Japanese leaders had different methods of killing that were instructed to the soldiers. However, the prisoners of this “City of Blood” soon found their liberation and their justice was served.
Yuan, Jing- Dong, “Sino-US Military Relations Since Tiananmen: Restoration, Progress, and Pitfalls”, Spring 2003, http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/articles/03spring/yuan.pdf
The Kwangju Massacre, also widely known as the Kwangju Democratic Uprising to those who support the movement played a significant role in the course of democratization of South Korea. This research paper focuses on why the Kwangju Uprising occurred and the role of the United States. Many South Koreans felt that the United States supported President Chun’s military government and outlook the injustice that was taking place in Kwangju. The Kwagju Massacre ended with the army seizing the Province hall once again on May 27th 1980. Even with the defeat, the Kwangju Uprising gave aspiration to the citizen that they are able to bring change in the government policies.
The Sichuan Massacre was caused by a man name Zhang Xianzhong. Zhang Xianzhong was born in 1606 in the Dingbian, Shaanxi province of China. Zhang was a Chinese rebel leader and he was close to the Ming Dynasty. After a terrible famine in the northern province of Shaanxi in 1628. After the famine Zhang became the leader of a group of freebooters. When attacking or looting they used hit and run tactics to plunder though China.