The Tiananmen Crackdown and its Legacy

Abstract

There is no shortage of literature recording the brutal suppression of the urban protests of May–June 1989 in China. The thirty or so books include instant on-the-scene reporting from Tiananmen Square, eye-witness accounts, the published experiences of leading participants and supporting intellectual dissidents, postscripts to work in press at the time and subsequently more measured, substantial and systematic analyses. What these works share is a condemnation of the serious violation of human rights and life on the part of the Chinese state.