The Road to Revolt in China
Morrison, Micah
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR VOL. 22, NO. 11 / NOVEMBER 1989 Micah Morrison THE ROAD TO REVOLT IN CHINA The Democracy movement's intelligence chief recounts victory and defeat in Tiananmen Square. X...
...Splits had begun to develop in the student leadership...
...This knowledge, combined with inflation and the failure of economic constructions, is leading China into troubled times...
...Also at the time of the decision to form underground organizations—roughly the period from May 20 to May 30—we began to plan for our Democracy University and solicit funds for the Goddess of Liberty...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1989 15 to engage in long-term struggle...
...The goals of the democracy movement were escalating: first had come the calls for reform...
...All the students who were encircled by the tanks and could not flee were killed...
...These clothes are what I wore on Tiananmen Square...
...He says his fate is now irredeemably wedded to the cause of democracy in China...
...At certain moments, transcripts of Politburo meetings were passed to me and military officials informed me in advance of army movements...
...I became the leader of the intelligence and security division...
...In short, a modest liberalization of the system...
...These are momentous times for many nations, with battles for an elusive thing called democracy—often just a notion of liberty, an idea of freedom—being fought from China to Chile to Poland and even in the Soviet Union itself...
...As they fought toward us with clubs and guns, the soldiers kept open one corridor out of the square and some students took the opportunity to escape...
...citizens—tourists and peace groups," he says—donated or attempted to donate money, but often were blocked by Chinese authorities...
...Wang is alive, jailed for life for violating martial law...
...The government had made the final decision to spill the blood of the students...
...Information came to us from many sources, including high-level members of the Politburo and military officials...
...Xin Ku (pronounced "Shin Coo") and his comrades initially saw themselves as reformers, not revolutionaries...
...We wanted to trade our lives for the ideals of freedom and democracy...
...Events started to move quickly in late March...
...on June 3 I got a telephone call...
...They decided to stay...
...T hey didn't have to wait long for the trading day to arrive...
...I spoke with him one long summer night, with the help of several translators, in downtown New York only a few weeks after his escape from China...
...Murders and rapes, as well as petty crimes, are often ignored by the authorities...
...They had immobilized Peking with barricades and protests and infuriated the ruling regime...
...There was—and is—a great deal of dissatisfaction and resentment, and so the demands of the students met the concerns of the people...
...We will never know exactly how many were killed...
...Perhaps it could be said that clear-thinkers in Tiananmen should have recognized from the moment Gorbachev exited that Deng was going to butcher the young upstarts and teach them a lesson once and for all...
...And heroes are not sensible people—they take chances and are swept up in events, they rush in where angels fear to tread, they stand in front of tanks...
...The vow is sealed with the blood of his fallen friends...
...A network was established in seventeen cities and we have printing presses and methods of communication...
...Freedom of association and freedom of the press are severely restricted...
...Support for the students was flowing in from every level of society, even the secret police, according to Xin Ku...
...A physics major at Lanzhou University in the Gansu Province, Xin Ku began his political odyssey in 1987 by founding a "democracy salon" discussion group to talk about China's social problems...
...In the next few years a very grave crisis will explode...
...Before the strike, the students sought government reform—!`an end to indifference and neglect," in Xin Ku's words...
...He is an intense young man, precise, cautious, and somewhat shellshocked...
...Even if we did not have to witness the bloody repression by the tanks," Xin Ku replied, "we knew nevertheless that we would have to face other forms of repression: arrest, exile, loss of jobs...
...Soon after, I lost contact with some of the leaders...
...At 6:00 p.m...
...what I wore on Tiananmen Square...
...Thus by the time of Gorbachev's visit—which turned out to be essentially a sideshow—the students were riding high...
...A month would pass before the students became fully organized...
...I saw a student with two Molotov cocktails strapped to his waist...
...With my own eyes I saw my fellow students shot by the troops on Tiananmen Square," Xin Ku said, his voice faltering...
...X in Ku means hardship...
...The government was taking a rigid and hostile attitude toward us," Xin Ku said...
...He believes the next stage in China's democratic revolution will come soon...
...But clear thinking is not a commodity of the revolutionary moment...
...Initially, my job was simply to analyze information coming to us...
...We needed "You see these clothes," he said, gesturing to his red polo shirt and stonewashed jeans...
...I asked Xin Ku if the leaders at Tiananmen had really believed that non-violent tactics would bring down the Chinese Communist party...
...If Chinese society does not have the rule of law, has no democracy, no freedom, no human rights, then Chinese society cannot be a peaceful one...
...The decision seems to have been based in part on the leading role of the Peking Students Association—already stirring things up in the capital...
...W ith Gorbachev's departure on May 19, events began to take a sinister turn...
...One of my assistants was shot in his left shoulder, another was shot in the hand...
...in part to take advantage of the momentum caused by Hu's death...
...Others did not live...
...She was directing a group that had decided to stay no matter what...
...It may be that we will all die here.' I walked away...
...On the night of June 3, in a skirmish with the military, as a protest against the repressive activities of the government, he set himself on fire...
...Xin Ku says the fact of his escape proves "that secret channels still exist" to aid the Chinese resistance...
...Xin Ku led a large cadre of students from Lanzhou to Peking...
...I hurried back to Tiananmen Square...
...The hunger strike represented a change of goals," he said...
...Wuer Kai Xi's call did not reflect the collective decision of the leadership, although he implied it did...
...The student leaders able to reach Tiananmen waited nervously on the steps of the monument...
...Gorbachev's turn toward reform ignores the long shadow of the Chinese experience: the democracy movement was brutally crushed, the good guys did not win...
...while he adds some new brushstrokes to the tale of Tiananmen, the existing record confirms virtually every detail of his story...
...We aimed both at the Chinese people and at the rest of the world...
...Looking back, was Wuer Kai Xi right...
...These indignities, he noted, were what provided the real fuel for the democracy movement...
...On March 20, Premier Li Peng gave a speech signaling a retreat from China's narrow economic liberalization of recent years...
...Hundreds, perhaps thousands, died that night before the guns of the People's Army...
...With students pouring into the capital for the protests, student leadership factions began efforts to organize an efficient command structure...
...But when we realized it was not possible to get the government to change, we decided on the hunger strike to mobilize the people, to raise consciousness about conditions in China...
...The students overturned one of the tanks and opened an escape route...
...I will always wear these clothes...
...About a dozen people worked directly under me and many more worked under this core group...
...Was it worth it...
...But we need money...
...They were singing a very beautiful song...
...They have the ability to do many things...
...When they were about nine meters away from us, we finally decided to pull out...
...The groups are capable of being very active," Xin Ku continued, growing increasingly vague...
...Martial law was imposed, the reputedly reform-inclined party leader Zhao Ziyang soon dropped out of sight, and troop movements picked up in and around Peking...
...16 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1989...
...At this point, we felt we had totally succeeded in our goal [of the second phase] of raising consciousness and moving the world by our cause...
...China's recent inflation was another factor, undermining the wage base of urban and rural workers and serving to shore up worker support for the students...
...The inspired moments of Tiananmen, the heroic, even epic deeds—Homer could not have bettered Wang's confrontation with the tanks—now will have to warm Xin Ku and his allies in what probably will be a long exile in an America they'll find less than ideal...
...He demonstrated the selfless spirit of many students at that time...
...Over the preceding weeks the number of students in the square had dropped...
...This included monitoring the movements of the military...
...at the same time, student-led protests were springing up at universities and in cities around the country...
...We decided to come out of China to seek support for our cause...
...To speak one's mind is to risk jail or loss of job...
...Later in June, we lost contact with our finances division...
...To do this, we needed to ascertain the reactions of the government and take appropriate measures to respond to thoseactions...
...It began at universities throughout China...
...Peking marches to mark his death brought tens of thousands of citizens into the streets 14 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1989 and jolted the democracy movement out of low gear...
...The troops were coming in from the avenues and up from underground passages...
...One tank rolled over thirteen students from behind...
...Conditions for the interview stipulated that few details would be disclosed about his escape from China and current activities of the Chinese underground, and that Xin Ku would be allowed to review the article in advance to prevent inadvertent disclosures...
...In addition to information coming to us from the military, we sent out bands of student scouts who would return with material for analysis...
...The "end of history" is nowhere in sight, and the hundred flowers blooming today in Moscow are likely to be paved over with the gravestones of tomorrow's Tiananmen...
...The "end of history" is nowhere in sight and the hundred flowers blooming today in Moscow are likely to be paved over with the gravestones of tomorrow's Tiananmen...
...Do we stay or do we escape?!' The students cried out their opinion: 'We stay!' . . . So we stayed...
...By the evening of June 3, Xin Ku had been without sleep for three days...
...We formed a withdrawal line and tried to get everyone out by way of that corridor...
...I was reminded of Lenin's humorlessness, although Xin Ku had an equal share of a boy's sweet naiveté and a revolutionist's cunning...
...The people know what has transpired in the rest of the world...
...Exiles will continue to seek refuge on America's shores because they found inspiration in America's ideals...
...The world knows the image of the 19-year-old student named Wang Weilin, who earlier stopped the tanks by standing in front of them...
...Screams and gunfire filled the night...
...Obviously, I can say little about these organizations...
...From the period of the beginning of the hunger strike to its close three days before Gorbachev's arrival [May 15] our actions raised the awareness of people around the globe about the lack of freedom in China...
...We needed to continue the mobilization of the people, and so we organized teams to go into the country to promulgate democracy...
...The students no longer recognized the government...
...We had no money, our organization was in disarray...
...One must assume, however, that the not unformidable Chinese intelligence apparatus had penetrated the student organization...
...Perhaps it could be said there was a time when the students could have escaped with some small victories...
...As we withdrew to the outer streets, tanks and helicopters chased us for two hours...
...Intelligence forecasts were grim...
...Also, many people simply came in with information...
...About my escape I can say nothing, because these channels are still open...
...The occupation of Tiananmen Square was over...
...At this point," Xin Ku said, "we still hoped for reformist government actions to protect the rights of the people...
...A student network was coordinating activities throughout China and, although regional protests continued, a decision was reached to focus efforts on Peking...
...Yet the euphoria in many quarters over Mr...
...Our division [intelligence and security] became responsible for protecting the student leaders and hunger strikers, as well as for gauging the overall safety of all the students on the square...
...I will always wear these clothes...
...In the predawn hours of the morning of June 4, the firing began and the tanks rolled in, cutting down the outer ranks of the students...
...By late April the crowds of protesters had grown to more than 100,000 and the world was beginning to take notice of events in Peking...
...I was very busy...
...In the heady days of April and May Xin Ku quickly rose to a powerful position in the democracy movement, becoming the director of intelligence and security for the student leadership...
...As of June 1, we knew there would be violent action against us...
...Rumors of Politburo power struggles were sweeping the streets...
...my job, rather, was to convey the` messages of the revolution...
...He seemed impatient and confused by my efforts to elicit anecdotes and details that might bring the story to life...
...Bribes are necessary for everything...
...But time was running out...
...After the imposition of martial law," Xin Kusaid, "our direction changed again...
...Because of this, he was relieved of his duties...
...In the days before June 4," Xin Ku remembered, "I had had a fight with one of my secretaries...
...He had requested that I submit my questions in advance, and his careful replies, read from notes in Chinese characters before him and promptly translated into English, were full of colorless political slogans...
...Of course we did...
...They were prepared to use their blood to wipe clear the eyes of the people...
...A unit of about twenty soldiers was fighting toward us through the crowd...
...Our first command post was destroyed and so we withdrew with the leadership to one side of the Martyrs' Monument...
...Therefore I began to form underground organizations to stay in China and carry on...
...The act of this student symbolized the willingness of all students to give their lives for freedom and democracy...
...On May 20, Wuer Kai Xi, the student leader best known to the West, broke from the others and urged a withdrawal from the square...
...On April 15, the former Communist party general secretary, Hu Yaobang, identified with the reformist faction of the Politburo and purged in 1987 after falling out with maximum leader Deng Xiaoping, departed from the land of the living...
...The students initially sought a modicum of freedom of speech and a free press, some independence of the legal system as a check against state power, and government action against corruption...
...We resolved to carry on the struggle for the long term," Xin Ku said, "to go throughout China to spread the message of our goals, to tell the truth about what happened on Tiananmen Square...
...I witnessed many heroic deeds that night and in the days before...
...The soldiers surrounded us," Xin Ku said...
...Tempers were fraying...
...The leadership stayed until the last moment...
...The leadership felt it would be inappropriate to escape and admit defeat...
...6 4 T wasn't interested in politics at the beginning," Xin Ku told me, "but in man's basic human rights...
...Several independent sources within the Chinese-American community confirm Xin Ku's identity...
...Victory seemed imminent: the hunger strike was a success, the Gorbachev visit had been interrupted and eclipsed, the world media were flocking to the students' tent city on the square, and some estimates of the mid-May demonstrations on Tiananmen's 100-acre plaza put crowd figures upward of one million...
...You see, the students were prepared to sacrifice their lives to resist the violent repression...
...and in part to make full use of Gorbachev's impending visit, which the students correctly calculated would draw world attention...
...The possibility that it was being manipulated at times with disinformation should not be ruled out...
...Private U.S...
...The tanks cut our withdrawal line and rolled over the students...
...It didn't begin that way...
...You see these clothes," he said, peering at me through wire-rimmed glasses and gesturing to his red polo shirt and stonewashed jeans...
...I walked over to her and took off my cap and put it on her head...
...Eventually, the leaders of the Peking Students Association and the leaders from student groups outside Peking united to create a governing structure that included a headquarters group, a financial department, a media-relations division, an operation for public address on Tiananmen, an intelligence and security division, a small police force for maintaining order on the square, and other departments...
...The leaders came up because of their demonstrated efforts and dedication...
...We need moral and material support for the tens of thousands now suffering hardshipsbecause of their participation in the democracy movement...
...Because their lives cannot be protected, their property cannot be protected...
...Still, it seems obvious that the people, particularly the young, will keep fighting...
...Low-level bureaucrats, often in league with local gangsters, exercise absolute control over the populace...
...A hunger strike was launched, involving at its peak more than 3,600 students and workers, according to the student intelligence chief...
...It was a heroic moment for the young leaders of the democracy movement, and an intoxicating one...
...We tried to organize a secret press conference for the foreign journalists, but the tight situation prevented this...
...Xin Ku, by this time a student leader at Lanzhou University, traveled to the neighboring provincial capital of Xian for a protest march, then returned to his campus...
...It was clear that the troops would soon surround us completely...
...Xin Ku soon became convinced that "political action was the only way to safeguard human rights...
...On May 24, in an instance of revolutionary hubris that may have sealed their fate, Xin Ku and the rest of the leadership "urged that an emergency meeting of the National People's Congress [the rubber stamp parliament] be convened to dismantle the present government and impeach Li Peng...
...At the same time, I realized that relying on methods such as this and the hunger strike would not allow us to attain the final victory...
...Xin Ku's eyesfilled with tears...
...For all the progress made in the last decade of relative openness, the ordinary Chinese citizen continues to live in a web of official corruption and indifference so vast it is difficult for an American to conceive...
...In the beginning of the movement, the formation of the leadership was not a result of organized elections," Xin Ku said...
...Why did they support us...
...For the immediate future Xin Ku will be attending an Ivy League university to complete his studies and improve his English, but for him life is elsewhere...
...When the students stood up," Xin Ku said, "many people, including workers, supported us...
...then the hunger strike to "raise consciousness" had brought a sense of victory...
...The troops also used chemical weapons on us, and there is evidence that the soldiers used dum-dum bullets, which explode inside human bodies...
...On the afternoon of June 4, with gunfire flaring all over the city and Tiananmen a battlefield of crushed and bloody corpses, the leadership came together for a final meeting...
...The leadership called out to the students from the steps of the Martyrs' Monument: `What do we do...
...now the idea, swirling in the turmoil of that Peking spring, was to bring down the government...
...It is the name adopted by a 22-year-old student activist only now coming back to earth after a dizzying ride in the stratosphere of revolutionary dreams and delusions...
...We all know this is the last time we will see each other,' she said to me...
...Then that corridor was closed off...
...The reality is that after ten years of the Cultural Revolution, followed by ten years of openness, the people know what has transpired in the rest of the world...
...These clothes are Micah Morrison, our roving correspondent, is the former deputy director of the Committee for the Free World...
...By human rights we mean preventing the constant indignities inflicted on human beings every day all over China...
...These demands were the origin of our movement...
...For by the end, when the tanks and the troops were sowing death in Tiananmen, it was clear that revolution was precisely what the student-led movement had come to be all about: the fall of the Chinese Communist party and its replacement with "democracy...
...In the political and economic crises to come, there are many possibilities...
...He looked at me as if I were crazy...
...On both sides, the stakes were getting higher...
...Xin Ku estimates that on the night of June 3 there were about 5,000 students gathered around the Martyrs' Monument, an obelisk with wide steps at the center of the action in Tiananmen...
...We decided to escalate the movement to involve all the people...
...We firmly believe that truth, kindness, and moral uprightness will vanquish evil...
...I myself, toward the end, had three bodyguards and six secretaries...
...To escape at that point would have been an admission of failure," Xin Ku remarked...
...I will always wear red to remember the blood that was shed in Peking...
...We all did...
...For days armyunits had been probing the streets of Peking and, it was rumored, assembling in the network of underground tunnels beneath the square...
...This represented a setback...
...The night of June 3 was the last time I saw her...
...He emphatically denied that the students had contact with the CIA or any American officials during the spring months...
Vol. 22 • November 1989 • No. 11
