The Tiananmen Square Massacre (June 3–4, 1989) stands as a glaring symbol of the inhuman tendencies and hidden sinister motives of leftist totalitarian ideology. During this event, not only were thousands of innocent citizens—particularly students and workers—brutally suppressed, but the fundamental constitutional rights of millions of Chinese citizens were also trampled. This incident demonstrates that when a regime becomes disconnected from public sentiment and governs solely through repression, it does not hesitate to resort to bloodshed and to crush democratic aspirations.
In fact, the Tiananmen Massacre was not an exception to the character of leftist ideology, but rather a continuation of its consistent inhuman tendencies. A glance through the pages of history makes it evident that the entire legacy of leftist totalitarianism is filled with such anti-constitutional atrocities and acts of repression. The suppression of millions of opponents after the Bolshevik Revolution under Lenin’s leadership, the estimated 20 million deaths during Stalin’s Great Purge, and the deaths of tens of millions during Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution—all of these show that leftist regimes often institutionalize massacre and repression as tools to crush dissent and criticism.
It is also noteworthy that leftist thinkers and organizations in India have consistently drawn ideological inspiration from the same global figures—Lenin, Mao, and Stalin—whose policies have been associated with oppression, repression, and violence. Not only have they been influenced by incidents like Tiananmen, but they have also sought to promote similar tendencies within India.
In its existence spanning over a century, the leftist movement in India has, in various forms, encouraged the abuse of power, institutional corruption, organized ideological conspiracies, and violent extremism. Whether it is the history of political violence under Left-ruled governments in Bengal and Kerala, or the anti-state violent activities propagated through Naxalism and urban Naxalism—leftist ideology has repeatedly been found at the centre of these phenomena.
Infiltration into cultural institutions through pseudo-intellectualism, the construction of anti-national narratives, and the radicalization of youth against Indian democracy—all of this has been part of a long-term strategy that seeks to present authoritarian tendencies under the guise of ideological revolution.
Tiananmen Square Incident – Brief Timeline
In April 1989, the mysterious death of Hu Yaobang—a reformist and widely popular leader of the Chinese Communist Party—deeply shocked the youth across the country, especially university students. He was regarded as a symbol of hope — a leader who supported political liberalization and freedom of expression.
In protest of his death and in demand of democratic reforms, thousands of students began a sit-in at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Their demands included transparent governance, control over corruption, and restoration of fundamental democratic rights.
The peaceful protest intensified over time, and as common citizens, workers, and intellectuals began joining, the government labelled it an “anti-state activity.” Ultimately, during the night of June 3–4, 1989, the People’s Liberation Army attacked the students with armoured tanks and firearms. Thousands of innocent people were killed.
This horrifying event is recorded in history as the “June Fourth Incident” or the Tiananmen Massacre, which remains a forbidden subject in China to this day.
On the night of June 3, 1989, a terrifying scene unfolded on the streets of Beijing that shocked the world. The Chinese army entered the capital and opened fire, with initial reports indicating 35–36 deaths.
But that was only the beginning. Around 4 a.m. on the morning of June 4, when thousands of unarmed students, citizens, children, and elderly people had peacefully gathered at Tiananmen Square to demand democracy and transparency, the Chinese Communist regime revealed its most brutal face.
The government not only deployed tanks and armed soldiers to Tiananmen Square but even mobilized fighter jets. Without any warning, bullets were fired. Innocent people were crushed under tanks, running children were targeted, and the square was drenched in blood. This action was not just a massacre — it was an organized, state-sponsored assault on democracy, freedom of expression, and human rights.
On June 4, 1989, rivers of blood flowed through the streets of Beijing. It was not a battlefield of war but a meticulously executed massacre by the state against a peaceful democratic demonstration. The Chinese Communist government responded to peaceful demands with tanks and bullets. As tanks roared through the streets of Beijing in the darkness of night, nearly 10,000 innocent lives were lost within a few hours — including students, youth, women, the elderly, and even passersby.
For years, the Chinese government maintained complete secrecy about the death toll of the Tiananmen Massacre, but over time, some international documents surfaced that revealed the grim truth of the incident.
Alan Donald, the then British Ambassador to China, stated in a confidential telegram sent to London in 1989 that at least 10,000 people were killed in the military action. This telegram was made public 28 years later, exposing the gap between official Chinese figures and reality.
Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a renowned scholar of Chinese history, language, and culture at Hong Kong Baptist University, commented on the telegram by saying that the figures provided by British diplomats were “entirely credible” and could not be dismissed.
Famous Chinese author and social critic Liao Yiwu exposed the brutality of the Chinese regime in his writings about the Tiananmen Massacre. He stated clearly, “China has now become a grave threat to the entire world.” In his book Balls of Opium, which is focused specifically on the Tiananmen incident, he wrote, “Thousands of people fighting for the establishment of democracy were mercilessly crushed by the army.” This book was banned in China, and Liao Yiwu faced imprisonment, surveillance, and eventual exile for speaking out against the regime.
June 6, 1989 — Immediately after the massacre, foreign embassies in China advised their citizens to leave the country for safety reasons. The international community considered the situation unstable and dangerous.
June 12, 1989 — The Chinese Communist government imposed a nationwide ban on all student and employee unions. This step was aimed at completely eliminating any possibility of organized dissent.
June 16, 1989 — A large-scale arrest of student leaders began. Over 1,000 student leaders affiliated with various universities were identified and detained.
June 17, 1989 — To set a public example in Beijing, 8 citizens were executed. The message was clear — every voice raised against the state would be crushed with cruelty.
June 20, 1989 — The government suspended all travel visas. This decision was taken to prevent any protestors from leaving the country to garner international support, thereby ensuring the dissenting voices remained confined within the country.
The Bloody Leftist History of China
In 1949, Mao Zedong hoisted the red flag at Tiananmen Square, marking the establishment of a communist regime in China — a turning point in the nation’s history. Following this, the Cultural Revolution, launched in 1966, plunged China into a decade of terror and fear. During this period, Mao promoted widespread repression and violence under the pretext of destroying “bourgeois culture.”
After Mao came to power, China witnessed extensive political repression and mass campaigns to eliminate the so-called “enemy classes,” resulting in the deaths of millions. Jung Chang and Jon Halliday note in their book Mao: The Unknown Story that, “After Mao conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. In chasing this dream, he caused the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. In all, well over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao’s rule — in peacetime.”
Frank Dikötter, in his book The Cultural Revolution, writes: “The Great Leap Forward was a disastrous experiment which cost the lives of tens of millions of people.”
Richard MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals, in Mao’s Last Revolution, write: “Various of his remarks indicate that Mao craved a measure of catalytic terror to jump-start the Cultural Revolution. He had no scruples about the taking of human life. In a conversation with trusties later in the Cultural Revolution, the Chairman went so far as to suggest that the sign of a true revolutionary was precisely his intense desire to kill: This man Hitler was even more ferocious. The more ferocious the better, don’t you think? The more people you kill, the more revolutionary you are.”
Similarly, even after Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1979, repressive actions continued, including violent crackdowns on political dissenters and critics. These are documented in Frank Dikötter’s book Mao’s Great Famine.
Instances of state repression and violence also occurred in various parts of China in later years, such as the 1994 Tian Mingjian incident, the 2008 Tibetan unrest, and the 2014 Yarkand massacre.
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