Tiananmen Square: What Can We Learn from It?
Lesson Title
Tiananmen Square: What can we learn from it?
Name
Gene Traynom: Raleigh Egypt High School
Standards
Honors World History
W.72 Conduct a short research project describing the consequences of the political and economic upheavals in China, including the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square uprising, and relations with Tibet and Taiwan.
Lesson Length
Two 55 Minute Periods
Objectives
After completing this lesson, the students will be able to:
-Analyze the consequences of Tiananmen Square Massacre.
-Compare different primary sources of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
-Analyze the problems that can occur when a government represses its people.
-Analyze how the violent protest in the United States are different from the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Procedures
Introduction
At the start of the class I show a short power point about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The power point will include a review of the events that led up to the massacre and pictures about the event. During this time I will explain what happened in China during the event.
Readings
After the introduction, I will pass out two different sets of readings about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The readings are a mix of primary sources (the handout is attached). Some of the readings are testimony from Chinese citizens who were present during the massacre. The other readings are cables from the U.S. Embassy in China to the U.S. State Department. The students will read them as a class. When the students finish the readings they will complete a list of questions that will guide a discussion about the event (the questions attached). After the students have answered the questions, we will then have a discussion over their answers. After the short discussion, the students will have a chance to extend their knowledge by comparing and contrasting the Tiananmen Square Massacre to a protest in America that ended violently. They will focus on how the violence started and how the outcomes are different.
Conclusion
At the end of the class I will have the students turn in the questions they answered for discussion. I will also have the students turn in their comparison and contrast of the Tiananmen Square Massacre with an American protest that ended violently.
Evaluation
Formative
Observe the students as they are discussing their answers to thequestions I have given them. I will act as moderator and adjust the discussion as needed to make sure students do not get off topic.
Summative
I will have the students turn in their questions and comparison and contrast activity. I will evaluate their answers to make sure they understand the massacre. I will also read their responses to the compare and contrast activity.
Student Handout
Attached in Lesson Plan
Resources
George Washington University: The National Security Archive
Facts and Details: Tiananmen Square Massacre: Victims, Soldiers, and Eyewitness Accounts
Primary and Secondary Source Readings: Tiananmen Square Massacre
Before the Tiananmen Square Massacre
Describing the scene on the streets around the Tiananmen Square, the writer Yu Hua wrote in the New York Times, “The people. Still, it was not the rallies in Tiananmen Square that made me truly understand these words, but an episode one night in late May. Martial law had been declared by that time; students and residents were guarding major intersections to keep out armed troops.
Source:
Tiananmen Square During the Massacre
The hunger strikers Zhuo Duo and HouDejian decided they would try to negotiate a safe exit for those still in the square. They took a minivan to the north end of the square. Zhuo later told the Times of London, “We had to walk the last 100 meters or so. It was the most frightening moment of my life. I felt as if I was walking into Hell. Everything was dark. Suddenly I heard a tremendous noise. The soldiers were cocking their guns, someone shouted to us to stand still or they would open fire. We cried out that HouDeijan had come to negotiate. There was a pause and then about 10 soldiers approached us. I told the officer that we would tell the students to leave, but we needed to know the attitude of the army." The officer left to consult with his superiors. By this time soldiers were starting to clear the square by setting fire to piles of debris.
Source:
Tiananmen Square Violence
The first shots were fired around midnight at unarmed civilians about three miles west of the square. For reasons that are still unclear only soldiers in the west began firing. Students that were grouped around the Monument of People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square were petrified by the shooting. Four intellectuals were able to negotiate with an army commander to let the students leave peacefully through the southwest corner of the square. Some students threw rocks and Molotov cocktails. The morning after the street were littered with debris, burnt buses and smashed bicycles
Victims were shot, run over with tanks, clubbed to death, caught in crossfire. Fang Zheng, a student at Tiananmen Square who is now China's disabled discus champion, had his legs crushed and later amputated after a Chinese army tank ran him down and dragged him for 30 feet.
Wu Pei, a school teacher, told Newsweek, "Around 4:00am, soldiers encircled our group. Several hundred in our group lined up and filed off peacefully. But when we got to Beijing Music Hall [west of Tiananmen Square], some students started screaming, 'Don't panic, nobody panic!' Everyone started to run. Suddenly gun shots crackled around me and the air filled with gas. Just then a tank rolled through the bike lane, crushing people behind me who couldn't get out of the way. I still can't endure that [memory]. I'll never forgive them for that."
Source:
United States Documents from the Tiananmen Square Massacre
Cable, From: U.S. Embassy Beijing, To: Department of State, Wash DC (June 4, 1989)
As the PLA moved to consolidate its hold on the city center in the immediate aftermath of the crackdown, Embassy officials watched closely as tanks, APCs, and trucks passed by the U.S. diplomatic compound, moving west toward Tiananmen Square, reporting these movements back to the State Department. In the space of one hour on the early morning of June 5, this cable reports, "more than seventy tanks moving at a fast speed passed the diplomatic compound heading toward the square." Sources also report the presence of large numbers of burned out military vehicles scattered around the city. The document forwards some early casualty estimates, and also reports on the release of ten foreigners who had been detained by Chinese public security, including several journalists. Most intriguing, however, is a report, attributed to a Chinese-American who witnessed the Tiananmen Square violence, claiming that, "The beating to death of a PLA soldier, who was in the first APC to enter Tiananmen Square, in full view of the other waiting PLA soldiers, appeared to have sparked the shooting that followed."
Cable, From: Dept. of State, Wash DC, To: U.S. Embassy Beijing, China (June 4, 1989)
As reports flowed in from the embassy in Beijing, the State Department's China task force was busy updating other diplomatic and consular posts around the world on the situation in Beijing. This SITREP reports the current situation in Beijing where, "The PLA is mopping up isolated resistance," and notes that "casualty estimates vary from 500 to 2600 deaths, with injuries up to 10,000." The cable also discusses the foreign reaction to the recent events, noting especially that, "Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui called in AIT [American Institute in Taiwan] chief David Dean in Taipei to hear his appeal for the US to join in condemnation and consideration of sanctions."
Secretary of State's Morning Summary for June 5, 1989, China: After the Bloodbath
By the morning of June 5 (Eastern Standard Time) the "severity of the assault" had become clear to U.S. officials. This intelligence summary, prepared by the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, reports that, "Troops shot indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed civilians, including women and children, often with automatic weapons… Foreign journalists report seeing fleeing protesters shot in the back." The document notes the large number of destroyed military vehicles littering the Beijing streets, and reports that an undisclosed entity had "secured a university campus where students had captured an armored personnel carrier, and issued a warning that executions of students would begin tonight."
Source:
Name:______Date:______
Directions: Based on the information from the power point, textbook, and primary source documents, answer the following questions.
1. Do you think the students should have stayed in the square after the troops showed up? Explain your answer.
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2. Are the students responsible for the violence that happened in the square?
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3. How do the Chinese and U.S. Embassy accounts present the events differently?
______
4. Why is there such a large difference between the casualty estimates for the Tiananmen Square Massacre?
______
5. The Chinese government would later claim that violence began because some of the protesters attacking the troops. Do you believe this is true? Why or why not? Explain your answer.
______
6. What could be the potential problems when a government decides to use violence against its citizens?
______
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Name:______Date:______
Tiananmen Square Comparing and Contrasting
Directions: Create a comparison and contrast chart. In the chart you will be comparing and contrasting the Tiananmen Square Massacre to a protest in America that ended violently. I want you to focus on how the violence started and how the outcomes are different. Be sure to talk about the government response for both events.