{"id":212595,"date":"2019-05-25T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T07:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=212595"},"modified":"2021-09-14T17:23:38","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T00:23:38","slug":"30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the nationwide, student-led democracy movement in China, and the subsequent June 4th military crackdown in Beijing. To commemorate the student movement, CDT is posting a series of original news articles from 1989, beginning with the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15 and continuing through the tumultuous spring.\u00a0<\/em>
\n
\nFrom the May 25, 1989 New York Times<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

American analysts of China acknowledged today that they had little reliable information about the power struggle unfolding in Beijing. But they said that everything they did know suggests it will be a bitter and protracted fight in which half the leaders on one side or the other may lose their positions.<\/p>\n

\u201dIt is clear that the whole leadership has come unglued,\u201d said one senior analyst who has followed events in China for years. \u201dThis is a Humpty Dumpty that can\u2019t be put back together again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The worst outcome, another analyst said, would be if hard-liners around Prime Minister\u00a0Li Peng<\/a> succeed and use the army to put down the pro-democracy demonstrators. \u201dThat could lead to prolonged fighting between students and the army and would undermine everything the Chinese have been trying to do for the past 10 years, scaring off foreign investment, ending the opening to the outside world,\u201d the official said. \u201dIt\u2019s a pretty bleak prospect.\u2019 [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"1989demo\"<\/a>
\nStudents march through Beijing carrying placards saying \u201cLi Peng step down\u201d during a demonstration on May 25, 1989.<\/p>\n

From the same paper:
\n\u2013\u00a0Canton\u2019s Prosperous Students March<\/a>
\n\u2013\u00a0China Again Cuts Off TV News Transmission<\/a>
\n\u2013\u00a0Aspiring Party Leaders At Forefront of Revolt<\/a><\/p>\n

And from the May 25 Los Angeles Times: \u201cChina\u2019s Power Struggle Like a Family Spat; Elders Try to Repair Split<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

[This series was originally posted by CDT in 2009 to mark the 20th anniversary of the protests. If you have access to additional sources of original reporting, video, accounts or photos from the spring of 1989, please send them to us at\u00a0cdt@chinadigitaltimes.net\u00a0and we\u2019ll consider including them in this series. Many thanks.]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the nationwide, student-led democracy movement in China, and the subsequent June 4th military crackdown in Beijing. To commemorate the student movement, CDT is posting a series of original news articles from 1989, beginning with the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15 and continuing through the tumultuous spring.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1088,"featured_media":212597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7799,99,14745,14746,100],"tags":[5899,17718,15349,6902],"class_list":["post-212595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7799","category-cdt-highlights","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","tag-1989-protests","tag-1989-timeline-series","tag-ccp-leadership","tag-li-peng","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This year marks the 30th anniversary of the nationwide, student-led democracy movement in China, and the subsequent June 4th military crackdown in Beijing. To commemorate the student movement, CDT is posting a series of original news articles from 1989, beginning with the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15 and continuing through the tumultuous spring.\u00a0 […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-25T07:01:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-15T00:23:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/xpx.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Grace\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Grace\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Grace\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/c528efa816f4f8e766bc112a5d478256\"},\"headline\":\"30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-25T07:01:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-15T00:23:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/\"},\"wordCount\":337,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/xpx.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"1989 protests\",\"1989 timeline series\",\"ccp leadership\",\"Li Peng\"],\"articleSection\":[\"1989\",\"CDT Highlights\",\"Level 3 Article\",\"Level 4 Article\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/\",\"name\":\"30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/xpx.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-25T07:01:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-15T00:23:38+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/xpx.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/xpx.jpg\",\"width\":768,\"height\":506},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times (CDT)\",\"description\":\"Covering China from Cyberspace\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"width\":186,\"height\":177,\"caption\":\"China Digital Times\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/cdt\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/c528efa816f4f8e766bc112a5d478256\",\"name\":\"Grace\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/author\/grace\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders","og_description":"This year marks the 30th anniversary of the nationwide, student-led democracy movement in China, and the subsequent June 4th military crackdown in Beijing. To commemorate the student movement, CDT is posting a series of original news articles from 1989, beginning with the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15 and continuing through the tumultuous spring.\u00a0 […]","og_url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/","og_site_name":"China Digital Times (CDT)","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes","article_published_time":"2019-05-25T07:01:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-09-15T00:23:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":506,"url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/xpx.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Grace","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cdt","twitter_site":"@cdt","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Grace","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/"},"author":{"name":"Grace","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/c528efa816f4f8e766bc112a5d478256"},"headline":"30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders","datePublished":"2019-05-25T07:01:13+00:00","dateModified":"2021-09-15T00:23:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/"},"wordCount":337,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/xpx.jpg","keywords":["1989 protests","1989 timeline series","ccp leadership","Li Peng"],"articleSection":["1989","CDT Highlights","Level 3 Article","Level 4 Article","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/","url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/","name":"30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/xpx.jpg","datePublished":"2019-05-25T07:01:13+00:00","dateModified":"2021-09-15T00:23:38+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/xpx.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/xpx.jpg","width":768,"height":506},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/05\/30-years-ago-chaos-among-the-leaders\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"30 Years Ago: Chaos Among the Leaders"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/","name":"China Digital Times (CDT)","description":"Covering China from Cyberspace","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization","name":"China Digital Times","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg","width":186,"height":177,"caption":"China Digital Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes","https:\/\/x.com\/cdt"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/c528efa816f4f8e766bc112a5d478256","name":"Grace","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/author\/grace\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1088"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}