The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre were a turning point for many Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, who were subjected to a purge that started after June 4, 1989. The purge covered top-level government figures down to local officials, and included CCP General Secretary Zhao Ziyang and his associates.[1] The purge took the form of a massive ideological campaign that lasted 18 months. At least 4 million Communist Party members (a tenth of the total) were under some sort of investigation.[2][3] The government stated that the purge was undertaken for the purpose of “resolutely getting rid of hostile elements, antiparty elements, and corrupt elements" as well as "dealing strictly with those inside the party serious tendencies toward bourgeois liberalization”[3][4] and purify the party.[4]
Party members who joined the demonstration before the declaration of martial law had to write thousand-word accounts to prove their loyalty, but ultimately their loyalty would be determined by the party. Only the members whose loyalty had been proved could re-register their party memberships.[5] Those who expressed the desire to resign to protest the crackdown were not allowed resignation, instead, the party would expel them.[5]
- ^ Baum, Richard (1994). Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 314.
- ^ Lim, Louisa (2014). The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 49.
- ^ a b Zhao, Ziyang (1996). Prisoner of the State. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 29.
- ^ a b Lin, Bih-jaw (1992). The Aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Crisis in Mainland China. San Francisco: Westview Press. p. 116.
- ^ a b Miles. The Legacy of Tiananmen. p. 28.