Chaos Under Heaven: The Shocking Story of China's Search for Democracy

by Gordon Thomas

A chronicle of the events leading up to the Tiananmen Square massacre and its aftermath, based on interviews, eyewitness accounts, letters, official records, diaries, and other materials

Genres: History, China, Politics, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1991

About the author

Gordon Thomas (born 1933) is a Welsh author who has written more than fifty books.
Thomas was born in Wales, in a cemetery keeper's cottage where his grandmother lived. He had his first story published at nine years old in a Boy's Own Paper competition. With his father in the RAF, he traveled widely and was educated at the Cairo High School, the Maritz Brothers (in Port Elizabeth, South Africa) and, lastly, at Bedford Modern School. His first book, completed at the age of seventeen, is the story of a British spy in Russia during World War II, titled Descent Into Danger. He refused the offer of a job at a university in order to accompany a traveling fair for a year: he used those experiences for his novel, Bed of Nails. Since then his books have been published worldwide. He has been a foreign correspondent beginning with the Suez Crisis and ending with the first Gulf War. He was a BBC writer/producer for three flagship BBC programmes: Man Alive, Tomorrow's World and Horizon.

He is a regular contributor to Facta, the respected monthly Japanese news magazine, and he lectures widely on the secret world of intelligence. He also provides expert analysis on intelligence for US and European television and radio programs.His book Gideon's Spies: Mossad's Secret Warriors became a major documentary for Channel Four that he wrote and narrated: The Spy Machine. It followed three years of research during which he was given unprecedented access to Mossad’s main personnel. The documentary was co-produced by Open Media and Israfilm.

Gideon's Spies: Mossad's Secret Warriors has so far been published in 16 languages. A source for this book was Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence agent, and legendary Israeli spy Rafi Eitan. According to Charles Foster in Contemporary Review: "Writers who know their place are few and far between: fortunately Mr Thomas is one of them. By keeping to his place as a tremendous storyteller without a preacher's pretensions, he has put his book amongst the important chronicles of the state of Israel."

Reviews

[Clem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not to be confused with the recent book by Josh Rogin that details the tumultuous trading partnership between Trump-led America and China. This book was written around 1991 and focuses on the Tiananmen Square tragedy of 1989. This book was surprisingly good. Great, in fact. I confess that I didn’t really know much about the details of the event when I picked it up to read. This book is a great account of the events that led up to the squashed student protest that gained unprecedented momentum yet was met with disastrous consequences.

In many ways, this books reads more like a novel or screenplay as opposed to a historical documentation. Author Gordon Thomas does an excellent job immersing the reader into the main characters’ lives, which begin several months before the incident. We read of many of the students, the Americans abroad, the political leaders, the journalists, the doctors, and the soldiers. He never allows his readers to become bored. There’s always action brewing, even if it’s just the mood in the air. What is especially rewarding to me is that it seemed very easy to assimilate the many Sino names in the story. This can be hard for my Western brain to assimilate. I run into difficulty trying to keep straight such similar names as Li Peng, Li Yang, Yang Li, and Pang Yi (all of those names are featured in this story). Yet for the most part I was able to keep up and not struggle with trying to remember who was who and what their motivation was.

This book might assume the reader knows much more about the history of China than what is provided here. It’s worth mentioning that during 1989, China’s Octogenarian leader Deng Xiaoping was looked at very highly both from within and abroad. He managed to remedy much of Mao Zedong’s disastrous programs that starved millions of citizens to death while executing a rather large number as well. When Deng came to power in the late 1970s, he realized that China desperately needed to open up its borders to trade with other nations if it were to ever grow and eventually compete with the leading nations. Although he was able to successfully inject some capitalist ideas into the socialist bubble, the one area where he was obdurate about was democracy and human rights for the masses.

It shouldn’t surprise one that such an event detailed here would eventually happen in a suppressed country that holds roughly one quarter of the entire earth’s population. In many ways, you could almost argue that the initial draw of the thousands of students to Tiananmen Square around April of 1989 really began as a happy accident. Without going into details, once the students arrived, they stayed and for the most part, remained extremely peaceful and non-confrontational. These young people weren’t trying to raise anarchy, they were simply wanting to engage their leaders in meaningful dialogue.

Well, as much as Deng Xiaoping was well regarded (all these years later, he still is), he and his hard-liner cronies grew mightily impatient when the students simply wouldn’t leave. It didn’t help when China had their scheduled summit with Mikhail Gorbachev in the middle of this unplanned interruption. The Russian leader was, sadly, really looked at as a distraction once he arrived and felt rather snubbed and out of place in the midst of all of the somewhat well-managed chaos. Eventually, in the beginning of June, Deng had had enough and ended up placing the country under martial law and sent the army in break up the students.

There’s so much more here, though. Again, it’s not the historical narrative that is the main highlight of the reading, but the way the story personalizes the many struggles of the individuals caught up into this sad historic event. Although not a focal point of the book, the author alleges that the democratic world leaders, especially U.S. President George Bush, never condemned the brutal actions of Deng. China had become too major of a trading partner, and it would be a huge economic setback to bite the hand that is feeding your economy. Sadly, though, this behavior is nothing new with world governments. In fact, Bush manages to keep China chummy in the aftermath mainly because he needs their support to go after Saddam Hussein after the Kuwait invasion that happened roughly a year later. Politics is politics.

Another minor drawback is that, as I review this in 2021, this is now a 30-year-old book. And let’s be honest – most Western readers don’t follow world events that much, so most Americans that you might meet on the street probably could tell you very little of this tumultuous event and any kind of after-effects. Well, sadly, there weren’t really any after-effects. Again, although China can be looked at as the enemy of Western Civilizations and the many democratic governments, their place in the world economy is just too overwhelming to alienate. So Tiananmen Square has basically been forgotten and even somewhat forgiven.

In fact, not only has it been forgotten by many in the West, the government of China is trying to eradicate the event from history within its boundaries as well. Most Chinese people who weren’t alive when it happened have very little sources to consult if they want details. It’s too big of an embarrassment, so it’s basically covered up.

This thing was a page-turner. Again, I compare it to a true-life TV series that I would want to binge watch. It was so enthralling that I wanted to keep reading and not stop. Once I finished, it piqued my further interest and I spent hours on YouTube watching and reliving much of the actual event. This was a very sad time that should never be forgotten, and as I mentioned, it sadly has. Governments that are unchecked by the people can be a very dangerous thing. Even if the economy seems to be doing quite well.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye opening reading about what happened to those brave students that spoke out against their communist government, about what they endured, suffered and the final outcome. How their voices were silenced and how they were crushed.

Their youth and hope showed the world that China was willing to change. But the old men in charge wouldn't give up power so easily. Tanks rolled over students on a hunger strike too weak to run. Students disappeared and things went back to the way they were before.

One can only hope that their sacrifices weren't in vain.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!

[Gregory Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think most people of a certain age have the image of a lone Chinese protestor standing in front of, and staring down a military tank, in Tiananmen Square seared into their memory. All these many year later, in an effort to learn more about modern day China,. I decided to read this, and other books, to get up to speed. This book describes in excruciating (in the best sense of the word) detail the events leading up to the demonstration, the six weeks of peaceful demonstrations and ultimate retaliation by the Chinese army to quell the protest.

Several points stood out to me in reading this book:
- the patience and ruthlessness with which the Chinese leadership acted (which at the end of the day really means Deng Xiaoping)
- the noble objectives (maybe naive?) of the demonstrators along with the fairly comprehensive planning that went into it. The protestors understood that they needed to remain peaceful and follow their Constitution
- the absolute scale of the number of demonstrators (many 100,000's if not a million or more) mainly students but subsequently joined by many regular citizens
- The response (or lack thereof) of the major western powers, most notably the US. George Bush Sr prioritized economic /trade benefits over human rights (as did the UK).
- Deng waited until he knew the West would not retaliate before he pulled the trigger, but when he did he left it all on the field
- Gorbachev visited China for a State visit during the uprising and was given short shrift during his visit, as his hosts were trying to understand and quell the demonstration. The Russian and Chinese versions of communism are fundamentally different but it seems that China's more authoritarian approach will win the day - if it can keep its citizens under foot
- It was interesting to read about the soldiers being drugged before going into "battle"
- The number of people killed and injured will never be fully known but it sounds like there were 100,000+ casualties.
- To engage with the Chinese successfully (either politically or in business), you need to understand that the Chinese view deception as an honorable negotiating tactic.

Where are we today, some 36 years later? I am no expert but it seems that the Tiananmen Square protests may have accelerated China's economic ties with the West (whether this is a good or bad thing remains to be seen). On the human rights side I am not sure that much has changed. China's view of the short term is probably about 50 years compared to a western time frame of about 3 months.

On a side note, who knew that there are 2 books with the same headline title (Chaos Under Heaven) that are both about China. I read David Sanger's version that focuses on Trump, Xi and the Battle for the 21st Century a couple of months ago and was intrigued to read this similar book - by Gordon Thomas, a highly credentialed investigative journalist and expert on China. It looks like he grew up in Bedford, not far from my old stomping ground in Wellingborough.

[Pablo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very solid book recounting the tragedy of Tiananmen and the primary leaders involved, both student and governmental. It also documents the sad and dispiriting, though not surprising, actions of (or lack there of) George Bush and his admin, Kissinger and company, and other notable banking and multinational figures along with other major international players. When they had the chance to influence Chinese actions, they universally chose money and big business over democracy. Typical short term economic thinking at the expense of the Chinese people and the world shaking possibility that true change could of brought. Instead we laid the groundwork for the worlds next great conflagration. Sad days!! 5 Stars

[Kant the Conqueror · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not an academic history book. It is written by a journalist, who is not a China expert, and therefore reads like a novel. It also includes small, but easily identifiable mistakes, which make me wonder how good Thomas' grasp of the whole situation is.

Read it, but accompany it by reading further academic literature!

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are better books on this topic out there. The novel like style the writer chose didn't work here. Between some of the emotions he assigned to different people involved to the dialogue in some scenes, it just doesn't feel genuine. The parts that stick to the facts are okay, but the writing is distracting.