The Tiananmen Military Coup d'Etat of 1989: A Neglected Aspect of History from a Comparative-Politics Perspective

Through research on official and semi-official Chinese documents, this article has found evidence to support the argument that there was a military coup d'etat taking place during the 1989 Tiananmen crisis. This invalidates a long-held assumption that a coup has been absent in the history of the People's Republic of China. As the military leader, Deng Xiaoping played a central role in the coup, and the coup served as a political prelude to the later military crackdown on Tiananmen prodemocracy demonstrators. The coup was prepared during the days following April 26 when Deng announced his hardline stance against Tiananmen pro-democracy demonstrations through the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), took place at the meeting illegitimately summoned by Deng at his residence on May 17, which enacted martial law and dismissed Zhao Ziyang, the top civilian leader, and was completed at the another meeting also held at Deng's residence on May 19 by Deng's anointment of the new party chief Jiang Zemin. In a comparative context of the Global South, the article further analyzes the case of a coup for highlighting its three "Chinese characteristics", which are: the structural inherency of the military power in PRC politics; the operational furtivity for political considerations; and the interweaving between the military mobilization for the purpose of illegitimate leadership and that for the purpose of suppressing social movements. These features may obscure relevant observations, but are not in conflict with a common definition of the coup. Instead, they can enrich the understanding of the coup. In essence, the Tiananmen Chinese coup is a response with the employment of state violence against the Chinese momentum of democratic transition.