Change is the dramatic art of survival. If one is to survive, one needs to adapt
to changing needs and desires. The Communist Party in China was started for just
that reason. The Chinese wanted a change from what was going on in the country
at the time. The student and worker protesters at Tiananmen Square wanted the
same goal to be met. They wanted a dialogue to discuss the need for an
adaptation, a change in the way things were being done in modern China. However,
the bloody massacre at Tiananmen Square only exemplifies the point that the
Communist Party, born out of revolution, would not allow another revolution to
be born. In the book, Tiananmen Diary, Harrison Salisbury takes the reader
through a minute by minute account of the days leading up to the massacre and
the subsequent aftermath. In this review, I will explore the Tiananmen Square
Massacre and its affect on China through the eyes and ears of Harrison
Salisbury. I will give my opinion of Harrison and his revelations, while also
exploring China and Tiananmen Square using other authors from class. Before
reading a book on China, a foreigner needs to understand China, its history and
its beliefs. China is a country of legends and symbols, of tradition and
heritage. As Salisbury states, “China is…ruled by her three great symbols:
the Yellow River, the Great Wall, and the Dragon”. Each of these symbols
represents a way of life for the Chinese. China is a very proud country with
many natural wonders within its own borders. The Yellow River is one such symbol
for the Chinese people. These citizens turn inward in order to cherish this
particular river, rather then look outward toward the ocean. The Yellow River,
as a great emblem of who China is, is a tremendous rallying symbol around which
to look inward. The river is a symbol for the people that they need to rely upon
themselves. They must not look to the sea, to the outside for help. Everything
that is made or done for China must be accomplished from within China. The
people have had to deal with every invasion, attack, and aggression with only
their countrymen to help. China has always had to fight off invaders, including
the Mongols, Japanese, Europeans, and eventually Americans. One such example is
the effort put up by citizens during the Boxer Uprising. It was within this
rebellion that a group of citizens took it upon themselves to fight the
Europeans and attempted to rid their country of this menace. The rebellion had
asked for assistance in the beginning, but none was given. The Chinese people
knew that they were on their own. Even though the rebellion failed in the end,
it gave the message that only China could help itself. The Great Wall is another
exceptional symbol that the Chinese people identify with. However, while its
purpose was to keep intruders out of China, in actuality it is a symbol of what
is wrong with China. “Not yet have the people and their rulers begun to see
that the Great Wall keeps the people in, as well as invaders out; that the
walls…confine minds as well as bodies”. The Great Wall is a barrier to the
outside world. It is not supposed let anything in, whether it be people, armies,
and on a more symbolic level any ideas. With the Wall and a tremendous sense of
emerging nationalism, the elite in the government believe that new ideas from
the outside world are invaders. They think that they must keep other ways of
thinking out of the country. The Wall also represents a need to keep everything
within its borders. The reason behind this is that there is a belief that
nothing should want to leave China. This belief has continued into the present
with the restrictions placed on citizens by the Communist Party and the
government. Movement of people, products, and information is restricted,
especially to sources outside of Mainland China. Finally, the Dragon is a
representation of China’s belief in its superiority, and the belief that the
dragon will protect the nation and its people “so long as they do not threaten
its order”. The Chinese are very xenophobic. This belief has been a part of
Chinese culture ever since came into existence. “The Chinese defined
themselves as the ‘central country’ and believed they were surrounded by
inferior peoples and cultures”. The xenophobic feelings were furthered during
the European era of trade. Events such as the Opium Wars and the Treaty of
Nanjing helped to foster a rise in the feeling of xenophobia throughout the
country. With the unfair treatment of citizens by foreigners, people believed
that outsiders were to be hated and treated as unfairly as possible. These ideas
have perpetuated through to modern China. In modern China, anything foreign like
people, equipment, or products is scrutinized and questioned before being
allowed to proceed into the country. This was where Harrison E. Salisbury comes
in. Salisbury was a world-renowned journalist from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He
was born on November 14, 1908 and died July 5, 1993. He was newspaper
correspondent for most of his life and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1955. He wrote
29 books and spent most of his life traveling the world in search of stories for
the Minneapolis Journal, United Press, and The New York Times. Over the last
thirty years of his life, he has spent time traveling to, from, and in China.
After he retraced the path of the Long March taken by Mao Zedong’s army during
the years of 1934 and 1935, he wrote a book entitled The Long March, which was
listed as the number one book to read by Chinese students in China. He has been
referred to as having an “unending desire and uncanny ability to be where the
great news of this century was made”. Harrison saw a lot and had been to a lot
of places. It is this knowledge, experience, and expertise that makes his book a
reasonable first source with which to gain an understanding of a foreigners
experience at Tiananmen Square at the time of the protests. The diary starts on
June 1, 1989, three days before the military crackdown. Salisbury’s purpose in
going to China was not to cover the Tiananmen Square protest, but rather he was
on an assignment by NHK TV from Japan. He was hired to make a documentary on the
anniversary of forty years of the People Republic of China. He was in China to
go around the country and film and photograph significant artifacts and places,
while making a chronology of the last forty years of Chinese rule. For the first
three days, he starts to make contact with some of his old colleagues. He talks
with these people about the current political situation. He concentrates on the
political figures, such as the heads of state and the leaders of the Communist
Party. His concern seems primarily about what is going on behind the close doors
of the government. He discusses the fall of Zhao Ziyang. The only real mention
of the students is when he drives by Tiananmen Square to and from dinner. On his
third day in China, June 3rd, he manages to enter Tiananmen Square and observe
the situation. He goes into great detail to describe the layout of the compound,
where landmarks are located, what people seem to be doing, and gives an analysis
of the lack of the freedom of press in China. The rest of the day he spends in
the Beijing Hotel, consulting with old acquaintances and colleagues. He sorts
through rumors and conveys what he believes is true and what is fiction. The
actual Tiananmen Square crackdown begins on Salisbury’s fourth day in China,
June 4th. His description of the events of the day go on for some thirty pages
and continues on with the events on June 5th. He describes the events from his
window and from what he hears on the radio, from rumors, and from other people.
He never leaves the area of his hotel until June 5th, when he is whisked off to
the airport to fly to Wuchang. All during June 4th, Salisbury talks about the
tanks and convoys rolling up and down the street, shots being fired repeatedly,
and people lying on the sidewalk bleeding. He continues to chronicle the
sporadic fire and movement outside of his window. He presents numerous
conversations that he has with different people about what is going on, not only
in Tiananmen Square, but also throughout the city. He can not understand whom
the army is shooting at. He believes that everything should have been over hours
ago, when the first tank rolled into the square. He describes his drive through
the city on his way to the airport on the 5th, one day after the Tiananmen
Square massacre started. He notes the differences in what the state owned TV
station is saying and what is actually happening. The rest of book details his
final seven days in the country. He travels from Beijing to Wuchang, Jiujiang,
Luchan, Nanchang, Canton, and finally Hong Kong to home. Throughout his travels
to these cities he hears about small rebellions, especially in Wuchang, where
supposedly a bridge was taken by students in order to protest the atrocities of
Tiananmen Square. He talks with local citizens to hear what they know of the
happenings in Beijing. Most of the people that he talks to support the state and
therefore accept the state controlled news information at face value. However,
he does notice that in some places that the combined students-workers movement
that was started in Beijing had moved into the Chinese provinces. Specifically,
he describes a peaceful protest in Wuchang, where students and workers had
gathered together in order to mourn those that had died in Beijing. One idea
that he discusses repeatedly over the course of the last half of the book is the
possibility of a ripple effect. He comments several times how citizens would
speak amongst themselves about the consequences of the trouble in Beijing.
“Trouble in Beijing bothered [the peasants]. It had a way of developing into
trouble for [the peasants]” . People are worried about what the government
will do in their cities. Another idea that he brings up over the last section of
his book is the idea of xenophobia. In the beginning he had believed that the
people had settled their xenophobic feelings; however, he realizes that he is
wrong. He believes that the uprising in Tiananmen Square will force the
government to revert back to a philosophy of xenophobia. He states evidence such
as the firing on the US Embassy and a statement by a Chinese diplomat that it
was the US media who were changing the picture of what was actually happening in
China. The diplomat went on to say that the Chinese government had shown great
restraint towards the criminal elements that were influencing the students. In
the last fifteen pages of the diary, Salisbury takes some time to put his
thoughts in order and to give his account of who is responsible, what he
believes happened in Tiananmen Square, why it happened, and what may happen in
the future. He believes that it started in 1986 when Hu Yaobang was expelled
from the party. He also mentions that the year after Hu resigned, the PLA
started to perform riot control drills. In addition, there was the death of Hu
that set off massive demonstrations. He goes on to describe Deng’s attitude at
the time, specifically how he felt betrayed by some of his high-ranking
officials, especially Zhao, and by the students. Deng had a negative attitude of
the students, calling them wa wa or children. Salisbury put almost all of the
blame onto Deng, claiming it was Deng’s anger from the “loss of face and
personal humiliation” that had led him to order the final blow to the students
on June 4th. He also puts some blame on the ineffectiveness of the party to form
a cohesive unit and determine a collaborative plan to deal with the situation.
Salisbury is perplexed by the unwillingness of the Chinese government to enter
into a dialogue with the students at such an early stage. He feels that it will
be a long time in coming before another effort will arise that will again
challenge the foundations of the Chinese Communist Party and government. For me,
I believe that Salisbury was a great journalist. He understood the facts as they
were presented. However, I have trouble with some of his analysis of the
situation in Tiananmen Square. First, there is the fact that he did not know
much of the reason behind the protests. “What was going on?” “How had the
standoff between the students and the government come about?” , were questions
Salisbury was asking while making observations and speculations. Sure, he knew
the history of China well; he knew all about the revolutions, rebellions, and
people involved, but he did not understand what was going on at that time. It is
this lack of comprehension that I find hard to by pass if I was to read the
diary and believe it as truth. Even in his conclusion, he is only scratching at
the surface of what went on leading up to the Tiananmen Square demonstration and
massacre. Salisbury also frustrates me a little when he gets to Tiananmen
Square. In his diary, he only describes the current setup of the compound. He
makes some references to the people around him, but nothing too in depth. I have
a problem with the fact that he didn’t stay in the square for too long and try
to talk to the students. All he did was take in the scene and leave. He is only
concerned with how he is going to complete his project. ” . For a man who has
done so much on Chinese history and spent a considerable about of time in the
country, a person would think that he had picked up a little of language, but in
fact he had not. Salisbury even comments that it was an “Odd
sensation-listening to broadcasts coming from Washington D.C., to find out
what’s happening a block and a half up the street. To me, he sounds like he is
writing a book about something that he only witnessed for a short time and had
no vested interest in, only that it is related to history. Throughout the book,
there is sense of naivete. There are comments interspersed throughout the book
that reflect Salisbury’s lack of understanding of the current situation.
Salisbury may know an extensive amount of Chinese history, but it doesn’t
appear that he knows much the current atmosphere and views that are appearing at
the time of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. He doesn’t appear to know
what the students are feeling or why they are demonstrating. For instance, “I
am sure that a lot of those the TV is now calling bandits are unemployed youth.
They have nothing to do, and the excitement of brisk rock throwing or setting
buses on fire would attract them” . There is also his statement that,
“Frankly, I can’t believe the country is that shook up” . This blatant
Western ignorance of the current Chinese situation should not have made it to
print. So why did it? Ultimately, I believe that this book is worth reading for
its detailed chronology and portrayal of what was going on. This diary is not a
summary, but an event by event account of Tiananmen Square and the countryside
reaction. He is able to give the reader a timetable in order to orient
themselves to the situation. He is also able to give a good portrayal of what
people outside of Beijing have heard and what they are feeling. This point of
view from outside the city, from the country, is often neglected in other
readings about Tiananmen Square. In addition, Salisbury was a distinguished
writer and his knowledge of Chinese history is helpful. However, his significant
naivete of the reasoning behind the demonstrations and his lack of major
interest outside of his project are drawbacks. Salisbury even comments that “I
am going to take a shower and purge the dust of China from my body” . In order
to understand what happened in China during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations,
a person needs to understand the students. They need to understand Mao’s
concept of constant revolution and how the Communist Party has seemed to have
forgotten that. China has to remember its entire past and not just what has been
told to them or what they want to remember. A true revolution will only occur
when the entire society is ready, but let us not forget that these nudges of
demonstrations are stepping-stones to the future and to change.