The second source was also written by a westerner, an American, so it too may have been biased. The source was written the next year, which would have given the author more time to accumulate a more factual figure, this figure should be correct although the author shows himself to be in favour of the students in that he says, “anyone on the streets was a target for the soldiers”, he wasn’t there so how would he know, and also that his figure of 1000 deaths “may well be too low”.
The third figure was contained in the second source to show how unrealistic the Chinese figure was, it says that, ”only 23 students died along with a few hundred troops,” this was written by a Chinese government official, this would almost definitely mean that it was biased toward the government and was probably meant as propaganda for the Chinese people to say that the brave army lost many men to the rebellious students, but they still came out in an overall victory
3a Source D was produced by a photographer filming the events on the 5th June 1989, the photographer was probably there to record the visit of the Russian president Gobachev. It wasn’t made for any particular reason.
Source e was produced as a political cartoon for a British newspaper; it’s a parody of the photograph in source D, which had become popular as a pro-democracy image. It was drawn to put across the idea that Deng Xiaoping and the Chinese communist government was standing in the way of the truth. But it also portrays the message that the tank will eventually win as the frail old man will have to run away as the man in the actual image eventually did, and the truth will win.
3b Neither of these sources are particularly useful to people researching the actual Tianaman Square incident, source d shows one, isolated incident which wasn’t at all typical, the tanks had already run many people over already many of whom were asleep in tents and didn’t have a chance to get out of the way, and source E is just a cartoon there for not very useful as evidence as it has no actual relevance to the actual events of June 4th. However both are very useful to someone studying people’s reactions to the incident. Source d was used as a pro-democracy image in the west, it was portrayed as one man standing up against almost inevitable death for what he believed in, that the students involved in the Tianaman Square incident had immense amounts of bravery, and that the Chinese people were prepared to die for a democratic government. The Chinese government also used this image, however, they used it to show the compassion of the troops, that the tank drivers did everything they could not to kill the people, and that the students were irresponsible. Source E is useful to someone studying the viewpoints of westerners to the Chinese political system, that it was commonly thought that the leaders in China stood in the way of the truth, that they tried to cover up the truth about the actual number of casualties on the day, and what happened on the day of the incident.
4. The evidence given in Source g by Joe the American student about the middle classes in China getting richer and wanting a democratic society is backed up by the statistics in source f in that they say the amount of goods possessed by urban household (the middle classes tend to live in cities) are growing and there for the middle classes are becoming richer and are gaining more power, and that because of this they may want a new government. But this could also be interpreted to say that they don’t need a new government because they are becoming richer under this one. The statistics could also show that people living in rural areas (generally lower class people in China) are becoming richer at a faster rate than the middle classes and that it is actually the lower classes that were becoming richer and gaining power, not the middle classes. Source f can be interpreted in many ways, as well as to back up the information provided in source g so it only really supports the views given in source g to certain point. However I do know that during the 1980s the middle classes were gaining more power, and that eventually the middle class students did start to campaign for a democratic government and that they did partake in protests such as the one at Tianaman Square.
Source G says three things about the political system in China, it says that the authorities open the mail of western students, that a protest was being planed in the near future and that this protest was likely to succeed. The source was taken from a diary, which was probably not intended to be read as a historical source there for not making it reliable or accurate. The diary was written by a western tourist who may not have known much about the political situation in China, and his sources were third hand from another westerner, an American student after speaking to Chinese students, both the westerners may not have known much about China and her politics.
We know that he was probably right in saying that mail was opened, as the government did crack down on students spreading their views on politics as in 1996 a student called Wang Dan who was heavily involved in the Tianaman square incident, was arrested for this and later released, was jailed again for 11 years for writing articles in foreign newspapers. However I also know that there was no protest in their near future as it is now nearly 11 years after the event and so far another protest has not taken place. Joe the American student also says that they have to be careful about what they say in public in China, yet he is speaking openly about politics in a restaurant, so the man who wrote the diary may have made things up.
6 I don’t agree with the statement “the Tianaman square incident failed to destroy the Chinese democracy movement” The first three sources were written by westerners who were all in favour of the democracy movement although they were all negative to suggestions that it would continue. The first two sources contain words and phrases such as “crushing”, “its cruel end” and “peaceful Pro-democracy rallies ended in a bloodbath”. All these statements imply that the movement won’t be restarted. Source C even goes as far to say, “the Chinese democracy movement was crushed”.
Sources D and E have also been produced by westerners, but instead of being negative, these images appear to be quite optimistic. Source D shows a convoy of tanks on their way to Tianaman Square stopping because there is a protester in their way. This is supposed to show that if just one man stands up for a cause not even an armed tank can get in his way. It could also show, that even though these tanks were on their way to Tianaman square, the drivers didn’t want to kill civilians and would rather avoid them. Source e tries to portray that the Chinese political leaders can only stand in the way of the truth for so long, and eventually they will have to either get out of the way of the truth, as the man in the original photo got out of the way of the tanks, or that they would be crushed by it. Source f can be interpreted in both way it could either mean that the middle classes are getting richer and there for may want more than they can have with a communist government, or that they were getting richer there for making them content with the government. Source G is quite anti-communist, but it is thought to be unreliable so although it says that other uprisings would happen they never did. The main reason that no more rallies took place was because of the harsh prison sentences that were inflicted on people found to be plotting to overthrow the government, these sentences could be as long as 11 years in the instance of the case of Wang Dan. This may be another reason that Joes predicted rallies never took place, because all the leading protesters had died in Tianaman Square or were in jail because of related crimes.
