Yuan Mu (Chinese: 袁木; January 1928 – December 13, 2018) was a Chinese politician and journalist. During his tenure at the State Council, he acted as its spokesperson and headed the State Council Research Office.
Before joining the Chinese government, Yuan was a journalist for about 20 years. He worked at local newspapers before joining the state-owned Xinhua News Agency.[2]
Political career
As the State Council spokesperson, Yuan was invited by student protestors during the Tiananmen Square protests to a forum on April 29, 1989.[3]: 35 The forum was also attended by vice-minister of the State Education Commission He Dongchang. Attended by 45 students from 16 Beijing universities and colleges, the forum lasted three hours.[3]: 35 During the forum, Yuan denied that corruption was widespread within the Communist Party or that the press was censored.[3]: 36–38 [4]: 60
Yuan gave the Chinese government's first response to the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests.[2] Two days after the crackdown on June 4, 1989, Yuan described the protests as a "counterrevolutionary rebellion" incited by "thugs and hooligans".[5]: 20 He said fewer than 300 people had died, of which only 23 were students.[2] He also implied that at least half of those deaths were soldiers of the People's Liberation Army.[6]
In an interview with American journalist Tom Brokaw on June 17, Yuan clarified that while he did not claim that no casualties resulted from putting down the "counter-revolutionary rebellion",[7] nobody had died in Tiananmen Square when the People's Liberation Army cleared the square.[7] He said that student protestors had vacated Tiananmen Square after being requested to leave by the army before the dawn of June 4.[5]: 20 According to Yuan, American television networks altered news footage to make it appear that murder took place.[5]: 20
^ abcPhotographers and Reporters of Ming Pao (1989). June Four: A Chronicle of the Chinese Democratic Uprising. Translated by Jin, Jiang; Qin, Zhou. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press.
^Fenby, Jonathan (2008). The Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850–2009. London: Penguin. ISBN9780141917610.