James Gareth Endicott - Tiananmen Square and Later Views On China

Tiananmen Square and Later Views On China

In an interview shortly before his death, Endicott said that he thought the Communist Manifesto is "still as true as ever," though he feels the "old men" who are Communist leaders like Deng Xiaoping are not progressive enough.

Though ambivalent about the policies of Deng and initially sympathetic to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Endicott believed the Chinese government's version of events. He told an interviewer, "What is more clear to me now is that there was a core of students who were concerned mainly with getting something done about corruption in the party and in the society. I said at the time they should be supported. But a lot of the leaders, who at the time appeared to be idealistic, turned out to be agents for a capitalist restoration. It appears now that the Communist government was relatively correct in saying that very few people were killed in Tiananmen - perhaps two or three hundred, at most. But in another western section of Beijing, a lot of people were killed. There was practically a shoot-out between the capitalist roaders and the socialists - if you can call the army socialists."

Arguing that there was an attempt to overthrow the Chinese government, Endicott stated, "What took place was a minor civil war. The army's action in upholding the constitution probably prevented the capitalist roaders from really making an attempt to take over by military force. What was the government to do? Not react?"