China and the Tian’anmen protests & crackdown

March 13, 2014

Overview

• The external consequences of China’s open door policy

• The human rights issue before Tian’anmen• Immediate foreign policy consequences• China’s foreign policy response to sanctions• The deepening of China’s involvement with

human rights• China’s emergence as a significant global actor

Why this case?

• Example of interplay between domestic politics and foreign policy

• Human rights as a foreign policy issue

• The impact of economic statecraft on foreign policy

The external consequences of China’s open door policy

Economic consequences of reform: Increase in foreign trade, FDI, growth rates China became member of the World Bank

and IMF (1980) By 1989, the United States became China’s

largest export market Chinese students undertook overseas

training

Political consequences and the end of the Cold War:

Intellectual reform, e.g. Fang Lizhi, the first prominent intellectual to launch a public attack on Marxist-Leninist ideology

Dramatic political changes across the Soviet Union

China’s diminishing strategic value to West

The human rights issue before Tian’anmen A report by Amnesty International (1978)

highlighted incidences in China of:• Arbitrary arrest• Torture• Detention without trial

Repression in Tibet China signs a number of human rights

covenants

Impact of international factors

So see several international developments that weren’t anticipated at time of reforms:

• Influence of foreign ideas (democracy, human rights)

• Human rights becoming import foreign policy issue

• End of Cold War and loss of Chinese value in anti-Soviet containment policy

The Tian’anmen crackdownKey political dates, 1989:

15 April: Death of Hu Yaobang

13 May: Hunger-strike in Tian’anmen Square

15 May: Mikhael Gorbachev arrives for his summit visit

20 May: Martial law declared

22 May: Zhao Ziyang is removed from power

29 May: Statue of the Goddess of Democracy erected

The army moves in

• Demonstrators described as ‘terrorists’, many jailed, sent to reform camps, or sentenced to death

• PLA troops fired upon a crowd in Muxidi

• PLA troops cleared Tian’anmen Square, 4 June

• Chinese official figures: 241 killed, 7000 wounded

Immediate foreign policy consequences Sanctions imposed Perceived foreign involvement and China’s

decision to use force Beyond criticizing West, the government

stressed that stability at home and a peaceful environment abroad were essential if China was to reach its development goals.

China’s foreign policy response to sanctionsGrowing marketBilateral diplomacyGulf war 1990-91 and UN Security

Council action

China and human rights

• A shadow over Sino-American relations• Human rights ‘dialogue’ with UN bodies• Support for universalism, a signatory of:

• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

However, when various Chinese activists have tested the limits of these changes they have often found them wanting

• Several of the authors and signatories of Charter 08, were detained in police custody.

• China has placed blocks on Facebook and Twitter to prevent any form of serious dissent.

China’s emergence as a significant global actor

• Collapse of the Soviet Union

• Rapid relative economic growth

• Beijing is very willing to attack the human rights track records of its major critics in the United States and Europe.

• China has also become more dismissive of the West’s criticisms.

However, China’s position on questions related to sovereignty changed since 1989:

• China participated in debates leading to the adoption of ‘The Responsibility to Protect’ outlined in the World Summit Outcome document of September 2005.

• China also engaged in UN debates on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

Conclusions• Domestic issues can have a major

impact on foreign policy

• Human rights continues to be an important foreign policy issue

• However the question remains if rights concerns can trump economic interests