Tiananmen Square Document 8: Secretary of State's Morning Summary for June 2, 1989, China: Stalemate Continues, 1989

On the day before the crackdown began, the Beijing city government tightened restrictions on the foreign media reporting on the Tiananmen Square demonstration, and the Chinese leadership was becoming increasingly frustrated with the persistence of the student demonstrators and their refusal to clear the square. This document, a morning intelligence summary prepared that day by the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research for Secretary of State James A. Baker (the first of several included in this Briefing Book), discusses these issues and also the leadership crisis facing the Chinese government in the midst of the demonstrations. The summary notes that students expect that the "Goddess of Democracy" statue they erected in the square would "anger top leaders and prompt a response." "The students," the document continues, "may hope an overreaction by authorities will breathe new life into their flagging movement."

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Original source: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/documents/index.html#d8