Review: Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest

Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest by Vijay Gokhale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: First hand account of the protests at Tiananmen Square and the run up to it.

Vijay Gokhale, ex Foreign Secretary was in China during that eventful period of 1989 which has defined most Western views of the struggle for democracy. Vijay breaks that myth and explains why the Western version of events has a lot of generalisations, exaggerations to the actual events that played out. It wasn't so much as a protest for democracy as it was a power struggle between factions of the China Communist party - often painted as a giant well oiled singular monolith think tank to the outside world. He provides the run up to it from the 70s highlighting the key players and their struggles in the battle between political dominance and economic upheaval and the different thoughts on how to achieve the same. The book felt super dry and tough to trawl through initially making me wonder if I was prepping for UPSC but he warms up to his narrating style as he closes in on the actual events rather than a politico who's who biography of all the players.

If you are interested in Chinese political history and want a quick refresher on the players and the groups in the 80s primarily , this forms a good concise read on the same from the perspective of a former ambassador and an expert on China from an Indian perspective.


View all my reviews