People around the world are marking the 20th anniversary of what became known in China as the June 4th Incident. In April of 1989, students and intellectuals gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of communist party secretary Hu Yaobang, who advocated government reform. The gathering grew into an anti-government protest and lasted until June 4th when government forces cleared the square. Official Chinese records say 241 died in the incident, but the Chinese Red Cross initially put the figure at 2,600. Frontline aired a 2006 documentary about the protest and its aftermath called The Tank Man. That episode is now available online, along with a timeline and other features. Link -via Metafilter, where you'll find more links
People around the world are marking the 20th anniversary of what became known in China as the June 4th Incident. In April of 1989, students and intellectuals gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of communist party secretary Hu Yaobang, who advocated government reform. The gathering grew into an anti-government protest and lasted until June 4th when government forces cleared the square. Official Chinese records say 241 died in the incident, but the Chinese Red Cross initially put the figure at 2,600. Frontline aired a 2006 documentary about the protest and its aftermath called The Tank Man. That episode is now available online, along with a timeline and other features. Link -via Metafilter, where you'll find more links
Many of the younger generation who were children 20 years ago don't even know about this episode of China's history.
To me, this only reminds us how precious our civil liberties are in this country, and how many people died to provide these liberties. And now we're seeing these freedoms erode in front of our eyes (from both the left and right).
Do a google image search of "Tiananmen Square" on google.com and then on google.cn. Can you spot the difference?
The great firewall is a scary thing.
When is the world going to boycott China's products?
No, the man's identity was never conclusively established. There are rumors that he was executed or that he is in hiding in Taiwan, but no real solid information.
This video asks the question, Will China ever progress in democracy? http://www.newsy.com/videos/tiananmen_s_taboo_twenty
There is no doubt in my mind that china will progress to democracy someday, but in evolutionary steps rather than revolutionary. Instability cause by a sudden shift would ripple around the economic world. Also, the chinese culture has been ruled by a dictatorship for the past 2000 years, and during the period before the 19th century china was the leading technological civilization on earth.
So here's to hoping they'll bring back some of that tech prowess they used to be so good at.
Maybe some day a far time away... But imho different cultures/countries are better suited for different regimes and such things do not change easily or quickly. For instance, Russia like China has deep rooted needs for "strong leaders" and historically always tended to gravitate towards the forceful rule of the few. Calling it a democracy does very little in terms of how people are actually are governed. Furthermore, I would postulate that given or forced upon the freedoms of a western democracy such countries would quickly fall into chaos and potentially cease to exist unless reverted to the original scheme of rule. As recent examples you may think of Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan and other places where external or renegade internal force suddenly decided to change the rules of the game (for whatever reason). The reality imo is that governments arise from the people, and its the people who make the collective decision as to whether they will like to be governed with the stick or with the candy. So saying "oh, the poor Chinese, their government is soooo evil" just does not add up for me.
Or the USA, for that matter. You would think we were a country of Captain Americas by our MSM.