Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation

The Beijing Students’ Autonomous Federation was a self-governing student organization, representing multiple Beijing universities, and acting as the student protesters’ principle decision-making body during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Student protesters founded the Federation in opposition to the official, government-supported student organizations, which they believed were undemocratic. Although the Federation made several demands of the government during the protests and organized multiple demonstrations in the Square, its primary focus was to obtain government recognition as a legitimate organization. By seeking this recognition, the Federation directly challenged the Chinese Communist Party’s authority. After failing to achieve direct dialogue with the government, the Federation lost support from student protesters, and its central leadership role within the Tiananmen Square protests.

After former General Secretary Hu Yaobang’s death on April 15, students mobilized spontaneously both to mourn Hu’s passing and to demand democratic reform in China. On April 19, at Peking University (Beida), a meeting was anonymously organized to discuss the ongoing protests in the Square, as well as the prospect of forming an autonomous student organization. The meeting, in essence, was a “democracy salon”—an unofficial student discussion group that students at Beida had founded by the former Beida physics graduate student Liu Gang months before Hu Yaobang’s death. The salon decided that an autonomous organization was necessary to coordinate student protesters on multiple Beijing campuses. However, for fear of punishment by the government, few at the meeting were willing to speak out. Those who did, including history student Wang Dan, became the leaders of the newly formed Beijing Students’ Autonomous Federation.

Another aim of the new Federation was the rejection of the official student organizations. According to one student announcement, “the leadership of the original union is inept, has sold out the students’ interests…and is completely unable to represent the students’ wishes.” In this way, the student protesters saw the Federation as representing the wishes of the entire student body. The Federation planned to seek legitimacy by strict observance of democratic policies such as elections and group decision-making. The students hoped these methods would ensure the organization’s unity of leadership, and would effectively contrast with the lack of transparency they perceived in the Communist Party. On May 23, the Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation established officially at Liu Gang's residence near Yuanmingyuan, during the first meeting, the students had elected Zhou Yongjun as the first chairman of the Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation.

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