Introduction

For forty years, since 1949, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has been ruled by a group of autocrats who have attempted to transform the traditional society into a Stalinist totalitarian state. Shortly after the founding of the new government, the Chinese Communist leaders began to nationalize all means of production. The year 1989 portended momentous events in China, as it was the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the PRC, the seventieth anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, and the two-hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution. In the wake of the Tiananmen bloodshed, two diametrically opposed interpretations of the event have been offered. Both Jiang Zemin's and Deng Xiaoping's statements clearly indicate that the official interpretation of the crushed democracy movement had two purposes: to justify the brutal crackdown and to find the scapegoat for the tragedy. From both Chen Xitong's and Chen Yizi's interpretations one can see how the power contenders utilized the student movement.