A comprehensive summary of the public mood and response in Shanghai to the events leading to and following the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 can be found in CHN5117 of 23 April 1990.

The official Communist Party newspaper, People's Daily, reported that while 50,000 students in Beijing marched to demand greater speech freedom, press freedom and an end to official corruption, students in Shanghai, as well as in other major Chinese cities, marched in solidarity with their comrades in Beijing in early May 1989 (UPI 5 May 1989). UPI reported that "major newspapers gave unprecedented coverage of the protests, which commemorated a historic 1919 student-led movement for democracy;" the march culminated three weeks of protests (ibid.). The New York Times similarly reported that on 17 April 1989 and on 4 May 1989, thousands of protesters participated in demonstrations for democracy in Beijing and Shanghai (20 May 1989).

IPS reported on 5 June 1989 that as news of the military "assault" on students in Beijing "trickled" into Shanghai, thousands of students headed for the factories to urge a work stoppage. At one campus in Shanghai, teachers trained students on how to "agitate among the workers" (ibid.). In response to the tension in Beijing, students spread the word around Shanghai, and buses and trucks were used to block major roads (ibid.). The blockades "brought the city to a virtual standstill" (ibid). As thousands gathered in front of the Shanghai People's Congress to discuss the incidents that had occurred in Beijing, police gathered "to defend the symbolic center of government" (ibid.). No confrontation between the protesters and the police was reported (ibid.). The IPS report also stated that an underground press and loudspeaker system was used to disseminate information in Shanghai about the killings in Beijing and that Shanghai television was "relatively sedate, with the city's traffic controller appealing...for an end to the street blockades" (ibid.). In a UPI report, an American described the mood in Shanghai as "tense" as crowds jammed streets and prevented people from getting to work (5 June 1989). Protesters took to the streets and organized "funeral marches" for those killed in Tiananmen Square, and expressed "their anger at the news from Beijing" (ibid.).

Following the violent events in Tiananmen Square, The Boston Globe reported that the "anarchy" that took hold in Shanghai while the incidents were being played in Beijing was soon replaced with "order and control" (13 June 1989). The following excerpt from the report provides a sense of the public response and the extent of media coverage in Shanghai to events in Beijing:

As reconstructed through interviews with diplomats, foreign businessmen and several citizens, the details of the crackdown in Shanghai offer a little-seen glimpse into how the Chinese government maintains power and control over even the smallest details of the lives of its citizens.

It also provides a sharp contrast to the military crackdown in Beijing though in the end it may be just as effective.

In many ways, the challenge facing Shanghai authorities in the days following the massacre in Tiananmen Square last week was potentially even more explosive than the challenge facing authorities in Beijing. In Beijing, student protesters were nonviolent right up to the point of being attacked by soldiers and tanks.

In Shanghai, as news of the attack spread in the days following the massacre, the mood grew ugly. A train was attacked by student and worker demonstrators and at least six persons were killed. Even more importantly, students were forming alliances with unions, significantly expanding the size of the opposition.

On the surface, the first response of Shanghai's authorities appeared to be paralysis. No army troops were called in. There were few signs of police on the street. In retrospect, however, diplomats now say that during the first few days of unrest, Shanghai authorities flooded the city with plainclothes police. They allowed the students to build barricades, block traffic, prevent people from going to work. But they were also preparing for a crackdown.

"The public security was out," said a diplomat who was in constant touch with the demonstrators during this period. "They were taking pictures, noting who was talking and speaking out, keeping files." Some students also believe that during this period police infiltrated their groups and tried to instigate more protests so they could pin down the identities of more student leaders.

After three days of protest, during which transportation in Shanghai was paralyzed and prices in stores shot up as people hoarded goods, the mayor, Zhu Rongji, finally spoke publicly. History, he said, would judge the students in Beijing. Zhu focused his attack on the "chaos" that he said was enveloping Shanghai. Reportedly appointed by the deposed Communist Party leader, Zhao Ziyang, to keep Shanghai's economy glowing, Zhu faced the delicate task of trying to entice the workers back to work.

In the days after his speech, the local Communist Party propaganda machine swung into high gear. Bright red banners in neighborhoods declared: "Shanghai must not descend into chaos!" "We must maintain production!" "We must maintain social order!"

Over the weekend the television news established the government's "truth" about the massacre: that the demonstrations had been led by hooligans who would attack soldiers and commandeer tanks, committing atrocities such as burning soldiers alive. Following the massacre, the normal political study sessions that many workers are required to attend were canceled, apparently because the party had not yet sorted out its message. But according to diplomats, they have now resumed and diplomats said the sessions are being used to reinforce the government's version of events.

Shanghai's newspaper also launched a blistering attack yesterday on the Voice of America, which many Shanghai residents listen to on shortwave radios. And last night, Shanghai television continued reporting the arrests of local activists, describing one as being a leader of "jobless people" and saying that many had been in trouble with the law before.

Prior to the events on 4 June 1989, it was reported by the South China Morning Post that media outlets in Shanghai were increasingly being pressured "to toe the party line" with regard to events in Beijing (26 May 1989). Following "sympathetic coverage" of student protests in Beijing and elsewhere in the country, Shanghai's dailies Liberation Daily and Xinmin Evening News had reverted to covering "a diet of government-fed propaganda and harmless local news" (ibid.). Following demonstrations in May 1989, two thousand troops gathered around the Shanghai television station to protect it from possible threat by the protesters (ibid.). Although the journalists stated that the military was not interfering in their work, its presence had "an intimidating effect" and the station managers were being cautious as to what they were broadcasting (ibid.). The World Economic Herald, a weekly that ceased to publish in May 1989 and whose editor-in-chief was fired in April 1989 by local Communist Party officials, still managed to publicly distribute information about the student protests through student groups and other organizations that would circulate it around Shanghai (ibid.).

Although the Beijing municipal government officially outlawed the coverage of activities by Chinese and foreign journalists while martial law was in effect (Wen Wei Po 2 June 1989), the Center for the Study of Intelligence, while not making specific reference to Shanghai, reported the following on general media coverage of the incidents in Tiananmen Square:

Journalists were actively involved in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in the spring of 1989. About 1,000 of the 1,600 editors and staffers at People's Daily joined the demonstrations. Reporters also took part in marches and gatherings across the country from early May until early June, when the crackdown began. Journalists were among the principal targets of the suppression: hundreds of them were arrested or fired, and thousands, including more than 500 staffers at People's Daily, were forced repeatedly to write lengthy self-criticisms and to participate in much-loathed small group meetings. According to one account, more than 20 journalists were still in Chinese prisons as of mid-1996.

Like many other media organizations, Xinhua struggled to find the "right line" to use in covering the Tiananmen Square events of April-June 1989. Although more cautious than People's Daily in its treatment of sensitive topics during that period--such as how to commemorate reformist Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang's April 1989 death, the then ongoing demonstrations in Beijing and elsewhere, and basic questions of press freedom and individual rights--Xinhua gave some favorable coverage to demonstrators and intellectuals who were questioning top party leaders. Even so, many Xinhua reporters were angry with top editors for not going far enough and for suppressing stories about the Tiananmen Square crackdown.(e) For several days after the violence on 4 June, almost no one at Xinhua did any work, and journalists demonstrated inside the Agency's Beijing compound (1997).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Center for the Study of Intelligence. 1997. The Chinese Media: More Autonomous and Diverse-- Within Limits. http://www.cia.gov/csi/monograph/425050797/1.htm [Accessed 1 May 2001]

The Boston Globe. 13 June 1989. Jonathan Kaufman. "Turmoil in China; Shanghai's Subtler Path to Restoring Order." (NEXIS)

Inter Press Service (IPS). 5 June 1989. Philip Smucker. "China: Shanghai Students Dig in for Battle." (NEXIS)

The New York Times. 20 May 1989. "China's Upheaval: Five Weeks of Student Demonstrations." (NEXIS)

South China Morning Post [Hong Kong, in English]. 26 May 1989. "Media Control Extended to Shanghai TV Station." (FBIS-CHI-89-101 26 May 1989, p. 42)

United Press International (UPI). 5 June 1989. "In the eastern cities of Nanjing and Shanghai, government media advised citizens to stay inside..." (NEXIS)

______. 5 May 1989. Scott Savitt. "Chinese Students Return to Classes." (NEXIS)

Wen Wei Po [Hong Kong, in English]. 2 June 1989. "Execution of Order Questioned." (FBIS-CHI-89-105 2 June 1989, p. 6)

IRB Databases

World News Connection (WNC)

Internet sites including:

Amnesty International

Committee to Protect Journalists

Freedom House

Human Rights in China

Human Rights Watch

International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX)

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