Never Turn Back by Julian Gewirtz, published 2022, is a history of China in the 1980s.
Julian using Chinese sources shows a China that was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and determined to forge ahead with reforms to open up the economy and modernise China.
The party leaders were, however, divided on the path forward.
Deng speaking in feisty language and using colloquial statements made the famous assertion that “it does not matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.”. [p. 34].
Deng’s reply, “Never turn back,” when warned that the trail ahead was steep and treacherous while on a hiking trip in Guangdong in Jan 1984, became a mantra for China’s march ahead.
Unfortunately and for reasons not fully articulated by Julian, 3000 students decided on 17 April 1989 to use the sudden death of Hu Yaobang from a heart attack [Hu was a beloved former general secretary] to camp overnight in Tiananmen Square and made seven demands. [p. 224].
The students also demanded that Deng and Li Peng step down. [p 230].
Faced with such uncompromising demands, Deng declared martial law on 20 May 1989, but the protesters refused to disperse. [p. 233].
The protesters remained defiant. Thus Deng sent in the troops on the night of 3 June 1989. By the morning of 4 June 1989, in 12 hours, Tiananmen Square had been cleared [p 242-243].
Deng saw the protests as a lesson not to allow bourgeois liberalization and Western capitalism. The party tightened its grip on political freedom. [p 257].
Julian has written an interesting book narrating the story in broad strokes.
One wonders what would have been the trajectory of China if the students had not protested, camped, and made such extreme demands on Deng, leaving Deng no choice but to remove them by force.
It is naive of the students to think that Deng would cave into their demands and step down as leader.
They forgot this is a man who had taken part in the Long March, been purged twice by Mao during the Cultural Revolution, suffered family tragedy during the Cultural Revolution—his eldest son [by Chinese culture the most precious of one’s children] was thrown down (or jumped down under torture) a 4-story window by Red Guards] and became a paraplegic, and post-Cultural Revolution appointed back to power by Zhao En Lai, determined to make China prosperous and modern.
Their massive protests brought down the general secretary Zhao Ziyang, who ironically was then leading China to a more open society, with the quiet tacit approval of Deng.
One is reminded of the recent protests in Hong Kong, which similarly met the same fate.
Do these students know their history?
In the Cultural Revolution, Deng was deprived of all posts. Zhou Enlai reinstated his old friend, and Deng became Vice‐Premier of the State Council in 1973.
Deng practically ran the government during Zhou’s illness. He was dismissed after Zhou’s death in 1976, becoming a victim of the Gang of Four.
After the arrest of the Gang of Four, he was reinstated once again in July 1977. This is surely not a man who would back down to student protesters, especially when they threaten his beloved China.
Strangely, in the conclusion, Julian asked the rhetorical question, What would happen if the Chinese people were allowed to know the ‘revised history’ narrated by him in this book? He assumes his book will be banned in China.
In these days and age, any of China’s people can pick up this book in their overseas travels. There are really no secrets in the Internet age where a book can be transmitted easily online.