There were a ton of liberals and harder reactionaries (e.g. Christian zealots) there too, and by the very end that was a disproportionate amount of who remained because the people who didn’t want blood (and whose leadership didn’t want blood) dispersed. The really massive crowds prior to that point did have a lot of communists, though, along with a lot of students who didn’t really have a coherent ideological framework but just rightly opposed corruption.
the vast majority of the student leaders were neoliberals. Remember this was a time after the collapse of the USSR, and the Western Capitalists were making big inroads into China. Only later when the workers joined the movements did it have some Leftist movements, but the leadership was still dominated by the neoliberal students. Many of these student leaders fled to the West and a few became Christian zealots.
Oh yeah, I just meant that there were a lot of people there who were students who weren’t under student leaders, but just were students who were excited by the movement and joined in. I know that the famous clique of student leaders specifically were mainly neoliberal or even Christian zealots, some of whom were trying to cause bloodshed, like Chai Ling. There were actually a couple of student leaders who seemed to be secular true believers and at least one had the personal integrity to, from his new home in the west, object to Chai Ling’s lies (others were too cowardly or sided with her completely).
Well, I don’t know if we have confirmation that Chai Ling was already a Christian zealot, but it would make her actions make a lot more sense.
There were a ton of liberals and harder reactionaries (e.g. Christian zealots) there too, and by the very end that was a disproportionate amount of who remained because the people who didn’t want blood (and whose leadership didn’t want blood) dispersed. The really massive crowds prior to that point did have a lot of communists, though, along with a lot of students who didn’t really have a coherent ideological framework but just rightly opposed corruption.
the vast majority of the student leaders were neoliberals. Remember this was a time after the collapse of the USSR, and the Western Capitalists were making big inroads into China. Only later when the workers joined the movements did it have some Leftist movements, but the leadership was still dominated by the neoliberal students. Many of these student leaders fled to the West and a few became Christian zealots.
Oh yeah, I just meant that there were a lot of people there who were students who weren’t under student leaders, but just were students who were excited by the movement and joined in. I know that the famous clique of student leaders specifically were mainly neoliberal or even Christian zealots, some of whom were trying to cause bloodshed, like Chai Ling. There were actually a couple of student leaders who seemed to be secular true believers and at least one had the personal integrity to, from his new home in the west, object to Chai Ling’s lies (others were too cowardly or sided with her completely).
Well, I don’t know if we have confirmation that Chai Ling was already a Christian zealot, but it would make her actions make a lot more sense.