Piazza Tiananmen, 1989: la "rivoluzione mancata"

Abstract

The events in Tiananmen Square, in June 1989, represent without any doubt a countertendency compared with the changes of the last period of the Cold War. The new opening up of China by Deng Xiaoping brought not only a new boost to the economy of this country, but sowed the seeds of popular revolt against the orthodoxy and the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party. It is possible to reconstruct the different phases of this revolution thanks to US Embassy documents and to those that are not under control of party leaders. Since “the Spring of Beijing”, these various phases have brought up the expansion of a democratic movement whose protagonists were, in particular, Chinese students. The claims for greater freedom, a better political participation, and more incisive radical reforms clashed with the internal struggle among party leaders and ended up with the massacre of Tiananmen Square, on June 4, 1989