 Thousands of students gather in front of provincial government building in Harbin, Heilongjiang. Photo credit: Harbin Public Security History Record |
In the spring of 1989, protests spread to townships and cities in China’s northernmost province of Heilongjiang. Some residents were encouraged to head to Beijing, while others took action closer to home. University students demonstrated in Jiamusi and Daqing on May 18 and 19. In Jiamusi, 5,200 students took the streets and attracted more than 10,000 onlookers. In Daqing, home to China’s largest oilfield, 700 students from Daqing Normal University protested. The unrest appears to have been tame. Even in the wake of the violence in Beijing on June 4, public security in these cities did not report any “beating, smashing, and looting.” Instead they reported scores of reactionary messages and slogans found on college campuses. Similarly, at a checkpoint bordering the Soviet Union in Hegang’s Luobei County, armed police confiscated hundreds of reactionary leaflets, photos, cassettes, Hong Kong newspaper clippings, poems, and speeches from local residents returning from their studies in Beijing.
The protests in the provincial capital of Harbin were larger and presumably more intense. Gaining momentum from the hunger strike in Beijing—said to have been started by 2,000 students demanding direct negotiation with the central government on May 13—a total of 100,000 Harbin residents took to the streets between May 15-19 with 40,000 people (including 80 hunger strikers) demonstrating on May 18 alone, according to government sources. Participation ebbed after martial law was declared in Beijing on May 20, with the number of protesters dropping to an average of 4,600 per day between May 21-28. By the end of the month, three-quarters of schools had resumed classes. The situation took another turn, however, after the killings in Beijing on June 4. Within days, a third of Harbin’s students joined strikes and set up barricades to paralyze traffic under the leadership of the Harbin University Student Federation of the Patriotic Democratic Movement (HUF). “Beating, smashing, and looting” began and continued until around June 17.
Among those detained for the “political turmoil” was Zhang Jianhua (张建华), a HUF leader and assistant professor at Shandong College of Civil Engineering and Architecture. He was detained on July 18, 1989. Eighteen months later, in January 1991, he was exempted from indictment on charges of disturbing social order and gathering a crowd to disturb traffic.
Not all detainees were students. By June 8, 1989, 38 members of the “Citizens’ Support Group,” later renamed the “Patriotic Dare-to-Die Brigade,” had been detained, and six group leaders went on trial that year. According to Heilongjiang Daily, the group comprised people recently released from prison, people who were unemployed, and “hooligans” who were “dissatisfied with the party and government.”
By June 28, the Harbin Public Security Bureau had arrested a total of 11 labor organizers. The municipal government identified the Harbin Workers’ Autonomous Federation (HWAF) as an illegal organization along with HUF and the Citizens’ Support Group in a notice it issued on June 15. Established on June 5, HWAF aimed to collaborate with students to organize workers’ strikes and demonstrations and to resist any military control that might have been imposed in Harbin, according to an unofficial account widely circulated online. Wu Renhua (吴仁华), a historian in exile in the United States, wrote that 1,000 workers from bearings factories and automotive plants joined the demonstrations in Harbin on June 7.
Harbin Local Party Organization Records: click to expand
Chapter Five Putting Down the 1989 Political Turmoil
Harbin Local Party Organization Records
(April 1999)
Between the spring and summer of 1989, the political turmoil that occurred in Beijing spread to Harbin. After mid-April, some students at some Harbin universities successively began to receive illegal propaganda mailed from Beijing. Individuals who claimed to be students from Beijing came to some universities to agitate, while posters with content like “Support the Beijing student movement” appeared in other universities, interfering with the normal order of the campuses.
On April 19, the Harbin Municipal Party Committee held a city-wide meeting with responsible people from relevant departments to convey the provincial party committee’s instructions “to pay attention to social trends and be vigilant for a few troublemakers” and “to pay attention to student tendencies and offer timely persuasion and education.” The committee also announced the establishment of the Emergent Incidents Prevention and Management Leading Small Group led by Deputy Municipal Party Secretary Zhang Delin and with Vice Mayor Fan Pengxu as one of the deputy heads. On April 27, the committee held a city-wide meeting with party and government leaders and cadres to convey the speeches by central leaders and the spirit embodied in the April 26 People’s Daily editorial titled “We Must Unequivocally Oppose Unrest.” On April 28, in accordance with the instructions of the provincial party committee, the municipal party committee established a Counter-turmoil Team led by Deputy Municipal Party Secretary Shan Rongfan. On April 30, nearly a thousand students from two universities protested near university campuses. They were dissuaded from doing so and quickly returned to school.
On May 13, some Beijing college students conducted sit-ins, hunger strikes, and petitions. On May 16, the municipal party committee held a city-wide meeting with party and government leaders and cadres to inform and communicate about the situation and to give instructions to “stabilize the situation, be persistent on positive persuasion, and avoid the intensification of conflicts.” The municipal party committee put forth a seven-point requirement for stabilizing the situation. It specifically required that party and government cadres obey a strict political discipline of “no onlooking, no donating, no supporting, and no participating.” The municipal party committee also required leaders and cadres at all levels to have a good grasp on stabilizing the situation and on [maintaining] production, work, and daily life. On the same day, the municipal party committee and municipal government held a meeting with cadres at the three levels of city, district, and street (township) requesting each district and street (township) to strengthen social control to prevent bad people from seizing the opportunity to reoffend. On May 18, nearly 40,000 people took the streets of Harbin, and more than 80 students gathered at the provincial government office and announced a hunger strike (later [the number of hunger strikers] gradually increased to nearly 200). Some students gave speeches on major streets in the city center, fundraised, and hung posters with information on the Beijing student movement. On May 19, nearly a thousand students charged the Harbin Railway Station, ready to forcefully board trains to Beijing to provide support.
After some students began to hunger strike, the municipal party committee and municipal government instructed the municipal health bureau director-general to take full responsibility for rescue work and required emergency centers to send 20 ambulances to ensure the safety and lives of the students. The No. 1 Provincial Hospital and the No. 2 Hospital of Harbin Medical University each provided 50 beds; doctors at every major hospital adjusted their shifts to prepare for any emergencies. On the same day, the municipal party committee met separately with party and government leaders and cadres from different branches, requiring them to righteously educate and counsel the branch offices, employees, teachers, and students to make every effort to control the development of events and to maintain the order of production, work, studies, and daily life with a firm focus on production and work. The municipal party committee also required public transport and business service departments to ensure normal operations and to ensure the normal supply of grain, oil, and other necessities. The education department was required to instruct primary and secondary students not to join the protests, not to engage in activities to support the movement, and to maintain the normal order of teaching. News and propaganda departments were asked to follow party principles and have a good grasp of propaganda directions. Public security departments were asked to concentrate on fighting itinerant criminals to ensure social security.
At 6pm on May 20, the day that martial law was declared in parts of Beijing, representatives of the “Students Autonomous Council,” who hailed from 12 Harbin universities, held a meeting and established an illegal organization called the “Harbin University Student Federation of the Patriotic Democratic Movement” (referred to below as “HUF”). They decided to carry out a city-wide university protest against martial law on May 21. At the same time, they decided to go to factories and enterprises to establish ties, to go to the city center to give speeches, to distribute propaganda, and to engage in a so-called “rouse up the people” campaign to gain sympathy and support from society. From May 21‒28, a total of 37,000 Harbin university students marched to the offices of the provincial party committee, provincial government, provincial people’s congress standing committee, and local garrison liaison office to petition, conduct a sit-in, and submit a Protest Memorandum and a Petition Letter. Student demonstrators and bystanders caused traffic jams on some roads. Some students also illegally set up “radio stations” to broadcast recordings of rumors and posted slogans and posters everywhere. On May 24, one university organized a “Dare-to-Die Brigade to Beijing” of 250 people to forcibly board train No. 138 bound for Beijing, causing a seven-hour train delay.
Starting on May 20, the municipal party committee organized all party members, cadres, and masses in the city to diligently study the important speeches made by Li Peng and Yang Shangkun on May 19, and declared that the central government’s spirit be used to unify ideology and direct action. On May 21, the municipal public security bureau caught nine criminals who were disturbing social order in the square in front of the provincial government’s office, [thus] deterring bad people. On May 22, the municipal government issued the Notice to City Residents expressing its hope that all students would “no longer demonstrate, strike, or petition” and would “resume normal campus order”; that all cadres and workers would “obey discipline, remain at their posts, work hard, work efficiently, and maintain the normal order of production and daily life”; that all city residents would “not believe or spread rumors or put up any banners or posters”; and that all police officers would “maintain the flow of traffic and social order” and “relentlessly strike against all illegal criminal activities.” On May 23, the municipal party committee held a city-wide meeting with leading party cadres to convey the instructions of the provincial party committee and to require leading cadres at all levels to handle affairs in accordance with the law, widely publicize the law, refuse to allow students to give speeches and to establish ties at factories and shops, take effective measures, and restore order as soon as possible. On the same day, leading members of the municipal party committee, municipal people’s congress standing committee, municipal government, municipal Chinese people’s political consultative conference, and municipal commission for discipline inspection were divided into eight groups to conduct thorough investigations of 29 major enterprises to assist in stability work.
On June 4, more than 8,000 students organized and commanded by HUF marched in protest on the streets of Harbin. On June 5, more than 8,000 students set up 132 roadblocks at 83 major junctions around the city. They used public electric buses to block traffic and caused blockages among 26 bus routes. Some students went downtown and incited labor strikes at the entrances of 15 large and medium-sized enterprises. Meanwhile, some criminals took the opportunity to set up illegal organizations, like the “Citizens’ Support Group” (later called the “Patriotic Dare-to-Die Brigade”) and “Harbin Workers’ Autonomous Council,” and commit other illegal activities like beating, smashing, and looting. Around the city, this caused 9.6 million people to be unable to go to work and nearly 100,000 factory workers to be unable to get to the factory on time, reducing the city’s output value by 60 million yuan and affecting nearly 10 million yuan in profit tax. Tensions surrounded the production and supply of grain, oil, vegetables, and other staple foods. By June 8, 20,000 students across the city (accounting for 36.7% of the total number of students) walked out of schools due to HUF’s incitement. In order to calm the turmoil, the municipal party committee conscientiously implemented the Party Central Committee and the State Council’s “Notice to All Communist Party Members and People across the Nation.” On June 6, the municipal party committee held a city-wide meeting with party and government leaders and cadres to inform and communicate about the situation. It required all factories and enterprises to unequivocally publicize the law and defend the labor rights of workers. After the situation had calmed down, the municipal party committee again called on all city residents to “quickly restore the normal order of production, to regain lost time and wealth, to effectively boost supply, and to take concrete actions to maintain overall peace and unity.” From June 7‒9, 200 vehicle trips and more than 5,000 people were sent to cleanup traffic barriers, to restore public transportation operations, and to remove all the posters on the streets. In accordance with the municipal party committee’s directive to “grasp trends, strike momentum, and prevent a situation,” public security organs first struck against and captured key members of some armed, illegal organizations that incited disturbances. On June 16, the municipal government issued the Notice on Banning Illegal Organizations and demanded that the leaders and key members of illegal organizations and people who committed illegal criminal acts register or surrender themselves to public security organs by June 23. Starting June 17, the key members of the illegal organizations successively registered with the public security organs. Thus, the political turmoil in Harbin was completely put down.
 | Chinese Source（原文）: “平息一九八九年政治风波”，《哈尔滨市志 中共地方组织》，第285-287页。 发布日期：1999年4月 http://218.10.232.41:8080/was40/detail?record=108&channelid=50196&presearchword= Click on icon to expand |
第五节平息一九八九年政治风波
《哈尔滨市志 中共地方组织》
1989年春夏之交，北京发生的政治风波波及到哈尔滨市。4月中旬以后，哈尔滨部分大专院校有些学生陆续接到寄自北京的非法宣传品。有的院校有自称来自北京的学生到校进行鼓动。有的院校内出现“声援北京学生运动”等内容的大小字报，使正常的校园秩序受到干扰。
4月19日，市委召开全市有关部门负责人会议，传达省委关于“注意社会动向，警惕少数人闹事”、“注意学生动向，及时做好疏导、教育工作”的指示，宣布成立市委预防处理突发事件领导小组，由市委副书记张德邻任组长，副市长范鹏绪等任副组长。4月27日，市委召开全市党政领导干部会议，传达中央领导人的讲话和《人民日报》4月26日社论《必须旗帜鲜明地反对动乱》的精神。4月28日，根据省委的指示，市委成立反动乱小组，由市委副书记单荣范任组长。4月30日，两所大学近千名学生在校园附近游行，经劝阻迅即返校。
5月13日，北京部分高校学生在天安门广场静坐、绝食、请愿。5月16日，市委召开全市党政领导干部大会，通报情况，传达省委关于“稳定局势，坚持正面疏导，不使矛盾激化”的指示，市委对稳定局势提出7点要求，特别是要求党政机关干部“不围观、不募捐、不声援、不参与”，并且作为一条严格的政治纪律。市委还要求各级领导干部坚持一手抓稳定局势，一手抓好生产、工作和生活。同日，市委、市政府召开市、区、街（乡）三级干部会议，要求各区、街（乡）加强控制社会面，防止坏人乘机重新犯罪。18日，全市有近4万人上街游行示威，有80多名学生在省政府门前宣布绝食（以后陆续增加到近200人）。有些学生还在市区中心街道演讲、募捐和张贴大小字报，传播北京学潮的消息。5月19日，有近千名学生冲击哈尔滨火车站，准备强行登车进京声援。
哈尔滨市出现学生绝食的情况之后，市委、市政府为保证这些学生的生命安全，责成市卫生局局长全面负责救护工作，要求市急救中心出动20辆急救车，省第一医院和医科大学附属第二医院各腾出50张病床，市属各主要医院调整值班医生，做好各项急救准备。同日，市委分别召开各系统党政领导干部会议，要求各系统、各单位理直气壮地做好本系统、本单位职工、师生的教育工作和疏导工作，尽全力控制事态发展，维护好生产、工作、学习和生活的秩序，坚定不移地抓好生产和工作。要求公共交通和商业服务部门保证公共交通正常运营，保证粮油和生活必需品的正常供应。要求教育部门教育中小学生不上街游行，不搞声援活动，保证正常教学秩序。要求新闻宣传部门坚持党性原则，把握好舆论导向。要求公安部门集中打击流窜犯罪分子，保证社会安全。
5月20日北京部分地区实行戒严后，当日晚6时，哈尔滨的12所院校“自治会”的代表开会，成立非法组织“哈尔滨市高等学校学生爱国民主运动联合会”（以下简称“哈高联”），决定于5月21日举行全市高校抗议戒严大游行。同时决定，到工厂企业串联，到市中心地区进行街头演讲、散发宣传品，搞所谓“唤起民众”的活动，以争取社会的同情和支持。从5月21—28日，全市大学生有3.7万人次上街游行，到省委、省政府、省人大常委会和驻军机关门前请愿、静坐，递交《抗议书》、《请愿书》。由于学生游行和群众围观，造成部分路段交通堵塞。有些学生还非法设立“广播站”，播放谣言的录音，到处张贴标语和大小字报。5月24日，一大学“学生自治会”组织250人的“赴京敢死队”强行登上开往北京的138次列车，造成列车晚点7个小时。
从5月20日起，市委组织全市广大党员、干部和群众认真学习李鹏、杨尚昆5月19日的重要讲话，要求用中央精神统一思想，指导行动。5月21日，市公安局在省政府门前广场，抓获9名扰乱社会秩序的违法犯罪分子，震慑了坏人。5月22日，市政府发布《告市民书》，希望广大同学“不要再游行示威、罢课、请愿”，“恢复正常的校园秩序”；广大干部、职工要“遵守纪律，坚守岗位，做好工作，搞好生产，维护正常的生产和生活秩序”，全体市民“不要听信和传播谣言，不张贴标语、大小字报”；广大干警“要维护好交通秩序、社会秩序”，“严厉打击一切违法犯罪活动”。5月23日，市委召开全市党员领导干部会议，传达省委的指示，要求各级领导干部依法办事，广泛宣传法律，拒绝学生进工厂和商店讲演、串联，采取有力措施，尽快恢复各项秩序。当天，市委、市人大常委会、市政府、市政协和市纪委的领导成员分成8个小组，分别深入29个重点企业，帮助做好稳定工作。
6月4日，全市有8000多名学生在“哈高联”的组织指挥下，上街游行。6月5日，有8000多名学生在全市83个主要路口设置路障132处，用公共电汽车封锁交通，使26条线路全部停运。部分学生还到市内15个大中型企业门前，煽动罢工罢市。与此同时，一些不法分子乘机活动，先后成立“市民声援团”(后改为“爱国敢死队”)、“哈尔滨市工人自治会”等非法组织，乘机进行打、砸、抢等违法活动。致使全市9.6万人不能上班，近10万人不能按时到厂，全市减少产值6000万元，影响利税近1000万元。全市粮油、蔬菜等主副食品的生产和供应，一度出现紧张状况。在“哈高联”的煽动下，到6月8日全市有两万名学生（占学生总数的36.7％）离开学校。为平息风波，市委认真贯彻执行中共中央、国务院《告全体共产党员和全国人民书》。市委于6月6日召开全市党政领导干部大会，通报情况，要求各工厂企业理直气壮地宣传法律，捍卫职工的劳动权益。在局势恢复平静以后，市委又号召全市人民“迅速恢复正常的生产秩序，把丢掉的时间抢回来，把损失的财富夺回来，把有效的供应搞上去，以实际行动维护安定团结的大局”。6月7—9日，全市出动200辆车次、5千多人次，清理交通隔离桩，恢复公共交通线路，清除街头上的大小字报。公安机关按照市委“抓苗头，打势头，不使其成气候”的指示，首先打击身带凶器、煽动闹事的一些非法组织，收审其骨干分子。6月16日，市政府发出《关于取缔非法组织的通告》，要求非法组织的头头、骨干分子和有违法犯罪行为的人于6月23日前到公安机关登记或投案自首。从6月17日起，非法组织的骨于分子陆续到公安机关登记。至此，发生在哈尔滨市的政治风波完全平息。
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