Steadfast spirit is in the air

BACK IN MAY-JUNE 1989, when tanks rolled out on Tiananmen Square to crush the movement of the Chinese youth for political reforms, their hopes for change were high, in view of the normalisation of relations with the Soviet Union during Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit after a freeze of 30 years

But what happened ultimately was quite the opposite. “Let us close the past and open a new future,” Chinese supremo Deng Xiaoping told Gorbachev. The latter agreed, notwithstanding the mounting tension on Tiananmen and in several other cities. Future was opened for the rulers of China and the Soviet Union and later, Russia, without breaking ground for the people.

That same year, Europe witnessed groundbreaking changes. In the former republics of the Soviet Union and in east Europe, the spirit of citizens’ resilience exposed the futility of totalitarian systems as unsustainable forms of governance, leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall and also a sea change across eastern Europe. Many leaders could not fathom the depth of the changes. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and French president Francois Mitterrand were wary of the rise of a unified, strong Germany, a fear that loomed large in Europe after World War II. They tried to convince Gorbachev to react politically against the fall of the Wall.