People's Liberation Army at the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre

During the 1989 student demonstrations in Beijing, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) played a decisive role in enforcing martial law, suppressing the demonstrations by force and upholding the authority of the Chinese Communist Party. The scale of military's mobilization and degree of bloodshed inflicted against civilians were unprecedented both in the history of the People's Republic and the history of Beijing, a city with a tradition of popular protests against ruling authorities dating back to the May Fourth Movement of 1919. The topic of the Tianamen protests in general and the military's role in the crackdown remain forbidden from public discussion in China. The killings in Beijing continue to taint the legacies of the party elders, led by Deng Xiaoping, and weighs on the generation of leaders whose careers advanced because their more moderate colleagues were purged or sidelined at the time. Within China, the role of the military in 1989 remains a subject of private discussion within the ranks of the party leadership and PLA. Only outside of China is the subject part of the public discourse.

Declaration of Martial Law

With the Sino-Soviet Summit approaching and with the help of the local worker's unions, the Beijing protesters reached one million supporters by 18 May 1989. The protests caused deep divisions within the senior party leadership as well as the ranks of the PLA. On 17 May 1989, over 1,000 men from the People's Liberation Army's General Logistics Department showed their support for the movement by appearing on Chang'an Avenue and marching toward Tiananmen Square, all the while receiving enthusiastic applause from onlookers.

The senior communist party leadership coalesced around a hardline position set forth by paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and supported by Li Peng and Yang Shangkun to end the protests swifly without giving into the students' shifting demands. They decided to mobilize the People's Liberation Army. The decision to impose martial law was initially resisted by Defense Minister Qin Jiwei. On May 17, Qin, also a politburo member, attended a meeting at the home of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, and was directed to impose martial law on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. Qin declined to do so immediately, citing the need to receive party approval. Deng was the chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, but Zhao Ziyang, as general party secretary, was nominally head of the party. After the meeting, Qin called Zhao's office, hoping that Zhao would call off the martial law order. He waited four hours until early morning on May 18, for Zhao's reply, which never came. Zhao had lost in a power struggle and was purged from the leadership. Qin later publicly supported the military crackdown but was stripped of the defense minister position the following year and held dinimished authority the remainder of his life.

Martial law was declared on 20 May 1989. On the same day, eight retired generals, Wang Ping, Ye Fei, Zhang Aiping, Xiao Ke, Yang Dezhi, Chen Zaidao, Song Shilun and Li Jukui signed a one-sentence letter to Deng Xiaoping and the Central Military Commission, "request[ing] that troops not enter the city and that martial law not be carried out in Beijing." In response, Deng and Yang dispatched military aides to dissuade the signatories from voicing opposition to the crackdown.

Mobilization

On May 20, the 38th Army entered Beijing to maintain order. However, due to the number of protesters blocking the entrance into the city, the soldiers were held in a standstill surrounded by protesters. During this ordeal, troops and protesters sang traditional Maoist songs together. After four days, the PLA troops withdrew from Beijing on 24 May 1989.

The failed attempt to control the growing protesters in Beijing forced the party leaders to call in additional PLA units from other military regions. An estimate of 100,000 to 150,000 troops were deployed in and around Beijing by early June.

Four Army Units were mobilized from the Beijing Military Region, which includes Beijing and neighboring Tianjin and Hebei Province: 28th, 38th, 63rd, and the 65th. The 38th Army is stationed near Beijing and therefore has a closer connection to the people of Beijing. Many students had also served in the unit before attending university and some students trained with the 38th in the summers as members of the army reserve. During the initial days when martial law was declared, the 38th Army, under General Xu Qinxian, openly refused to use force against student protestors.

The 16th, 64th, 39th, and 27th Armies were brought in from the Shenyang region and the 12th was transferred in from Nanjing. PLA soldiers underwent re-education training prior to June 1989, in order to instill and reinforce the CCP's views and beliefs that "[The student protest] is turmoil; martial law is necessary." On top of being thrown into a situation that the soldiers did not fully understand, the military units from other regions spoke a different northern dialect than the Beijing citizens, adding to the confusion. This language barrier would limit curious soldiers in finding information on the student movement other than what they have been told by their chain of command.

Units mobilized

Based on Wu Renhua's study.

Beijing Military Region

• Beijing Garrison

• Tianjin Garrison (Headquartered in Ji County, Tianjin): 1st Armored Division. Motorized transport from Ji County.

• 14th Artillery Division (Headquartered in Huailai, Hebei): Five artillery battalions. Rail transport from Shacheng, Hebei.

• 24th Army (headquartered in Chengde, Hebei): 70th Infantry Division, 72nd Infantry Division, 7th Reserved Brigade. Motorized transport from Luanping and Luan County.

• 27th Army (headquartered in Shijiazhuang, Hebei): 79th and 80th Infantry Divisions, Artillery Brigade. Motorized transport from Xingtai, Huolu and Handan.

• 28th Army (headquartered in Taiyuan, Shanxi): 82nd and 83rd Infantry Divisions, Motorized transport from Hongdong, and Jining, Inner Mongolia.

• 38th Army (headquartered in Baoding, Hebei): 112th and 113rd Infantry Divisions, 6th Armored Division, Artillery Brigade, Engineering Battalion, Communications Battalion. Motorized transport from Baoding, Mancheng, and Xincheng County, Hebei.

• 63rd Army (headquartered in Taiyuan, Shanxi): 187th and 188th Infantry Divisions. Motorized transport from Yuci and Yizhou.

• 65th Army (headquartered in Zhangjiakou, Hebei): 193rd and 194th Infantry Divisions, 3rd Reserved Division. Motorized transport from Xuanhua.

Jinan Military Region

• 20th Army (headquartered in Kaifeng, Henan): 58th and 128th Infantry Dvisions. Motorized transport from Xuchang and Dengfeng.

• 26th Army (headquartered in Laiyang, Shandong): 138th Infantry Division. Airlifted from Jiao County

• 54th Army (headquartered in Xinxiang, Henan): 127th and 162 Infantry Divisions. Motorized transport from Luoyang and Anyang.

• 67th Army (headquartered in Zibo, Shandong): 199th Infantry Division. Motorized transport from Zouping.

Shenyang Military Region

• 39th Army (headquartered in Yingkou, Liaoning): 115th and 116th Infantry Divisions, Communications Battalion. Rail and motorized transport from Gai County and Xincheng County.

• 40th Army (headquartered in Jinzhou, Liaoning): 118th Infantry Division, Artillery Brigade. Motorized transport from Yi County, Liaoning and Jinzhou.

• 64th Army (headquartered in Dalian, Liaoning): 190th Infantry Division. Motorized transport from Dalian.

Nanjing Military Region

• 12th Army （headquartered in Xuzhou, Jiangsu)： 34th, 36th and 110th Infantry Divisions， Artillery Brigade, Anti-Aircraft Battalion. Airlifted from Xuzhou and Nanjing.

Guangzhou Military Region

• 15th Airborne Corps (headquartered in Xiaogan, Hubei): 43rd and 44th Paratrooper Brigades. Airlifted from Kaifeng and Guangshui.

Execution of the Martial Law Order

The 27th Army was tasked with relieving the 38th unit in taking Beijing and securing Tiananmen Square. According to Beijing citizens, the 27th were deemed to be the most brutal during the Tiananmen repression of June 4. The troops of the 27th Army were heavily equipped and seen by citizens as "illiterate 'primitives' who know only how to kill" because most of the troops came from the northern Shaanxi Province. Contrary to widespread rumors at the time, the 27th Army was not under the command of President Yang Shangkun's relative. Often seen as having direct control over the 27th Army, President Yang Shangkun reinforced the belief that it was up to the 27th to suppress the "counterrevolution" in Beijing. Some soldiers had also allegedly been drugged with stimulants and been issued altered ammunition to increase injuries. There were reports of violent shootings of unarmed civilians in the back "without warning" and even reports of the 27th coercing other army troops to kill student protesters. The Washington Post wrote how "The 27th Army [was] widely hated in Beijing."

Aftermath

Following the June 4 "crackdown" there were many reports of standoffs between army units. For instance, the 16th Army was also tasked to relieve the 38th and repress the protesters, however, it wanted to do so with minimal force. The 27th, ignoring the 16th's plea, continued on violently towards Tiananmen Square. On June 6, 1989, United States officials confirmed reports involving shootings between the 16th and the 27th armies on the outskirts of Beijing. Another unit that rallied against the 27th was the 40th, which established good relations with the civilians along their cordoned area around the airport road. The civilians exchanged food and supplies and offered moral support to the 40th. Although many opposed the undisciplined 27th Army, none was as prominent as the 38th. Initially reluctant to obey orders to enter the city, the 38th was replaced by the 27th. However, after June 6 the 38th was sent back into Beijing to relieve the 27th from their occupied posts. The hatred between the two units never resulted in more than the reported occasional exchange of fire. Because the 38th never killed any civilians, some residents of Beijing welcomed back their beloved troops and regard "The 38th Army [as] the people's army!"

During the Tiananmen repression an estimated 3,500 PLA officers disobeyed orders, resulting in scores of army officers being executed and several generals facing court martial, including 38th Army General Xu Qinxian. As a result of this mass mutiny, the military leadership reshuffled commanders throughout all seven military regions in 1990 down to the division level to ensure loyalty. There has not been a display of blatant insubordination since the Tiananmen Protests in 1989.

28th Army

The 28th Army was notable for its passive enforcement of the martial law order. The unit, led by commander He Yanran and political commissar Zhang Mingchun and based in Datong, Shanxi Province, received the mobilization order on May 19. They proceeded to lead the mechanized units to Yanqing County northwest of Beijing's city centre. When ordered to enter the city on June 3, the 28th encountered protesting residents along route but did not open fire and missed the deadline to reach Tiananmen Square by 5:30 am on June 4. At 7:00am, the 28th Army ran into a throng of angry residents at Muxidi on West Chang'an Avenue west of the ASquare. The residents told the soldiers of the killings from earlier in the morning and showed blood stained shirts of victims. At noon, Liu Huaqing, the commander of the martial law enforcement action, and Wang Hai, head of the PLA Air Force, flew over Muxidi in a helicopter and by loud speaker ordered the 28th Army to counterattack. But on the ground, the commanders of the 28th refused to comply. Instead the troops abandoned their positions en masse. By 5pm, many had retreated into the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution nearby. Of all units involved in the crackdown, the 28th Army lost by far the most equipment, as 74 vehicles including 31 armored personnel and two communications vehicles were burned. The unit was later removed and ordered to undergo six months of reorganization. Afterwards, all commanding officers were demoted and reassigned to other units.