Remembering Tiananmen Square (SLIDESHOW)

Twenty years ago, a lone young man blocked the path of Chinese military tanks attempting to interrupt protests in China's Tiananmen Square. Today, China has largely erased the scene from its national memory, but around the world, people remember the courage of the anonymous protester, often called the Tank Man.

For a time line of the events leading up to the killings that shocked the world, check out this slideshow:

• • • • • • • • • • •

Deng Xiaoping, left, chairman of the Chinese Military Commission, and General-Secretary Hu Yaobang, in 1981. Six years later, the progressive Yaobang was forced from office by Xiaoping and made to perform "self-criticism." Yaobang died of a heart attack on April 15, 1989; his death prodded students to take to the streets demanding that his self-criticism be expunged.
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Comments

[LeeCalif]

This is stunning. Check it out.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/behind-the-scenes-a-new-angle-on-history/

[Whatashame]

I will NEVER understand why a country like the United States will do business with China.

[Mystic01]

Because we are hypocrites. We talk about human rights, but when push comes to shove--as in china, 1989--we do nothing about them. After all, we don't want to offend a business partner, even if that business partner is murdering his people when they ask for democracy, freddom, and human rights.

[Sinomania]

Oh please, get some perspective. "to say the demonstrations were to “demand democracy” is an oversimplification." - James Kynge, an eyewitness to the events in 1989 writing today in the Financial Times. Try reading it:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0d3c9c04-5059-11de-9530-00144feabdc0.html

[LeeCalif]

The Chamber of Commerce is in control of our government.

and then there's NAFTA.

[Sinomania]

Americans peculiar fixation on this one event in modern Chinese history is truly astounding.

Not one of the political big wigs of 1989 are currently in power. In 2003 China had a peaceful transition of power to a new generation.

This July 28 will Americans remember the 77th anniversary of the Bonus Army suppression? How many of the readers here even know what the US government did back in July 28, 1932? We need to understand and see Tiananmen 1989 in historical context not through the lens of state-owned media like the BBC or GE owned media with political axes to grind.

As for China blocking access to Tiananmen on the Internet. Since 1999 when I first posted webpages on Tiananmen I have constant traffic from Chinese visiting the Sinomania.com website, including a particular surge today. The world isn't dependent on the MSM for viewpoints!

[Gripen]

I like how Fox News called the young brave man that stoped the tanks for a "lone gunman"

Was it a fruedian slip of lip by the anchorwoman at Faux Noise.

[steelmill]

Didn't Clinton give China favored trade status not to long after this?

[whoa20]

When is this going to happen in Islamic countries?

[pieya]

Wow, I can't believe this was 20 years ago...it was an unbelievable tragedy, and my entire family was devastated, as we have relatives there. No matter which way you look at it, the loss of lives was terrible. If China does not make this part of a history lesson for their children, they will be living in denial and depriving their future generations of empowering themselves through education.

[Chinesepeasant]

Even I was only 15 years old, I could still understand that the West was not friendly , the Voice Of America was bullshitting all day and all night,the only thing they wanted to see was the entire China in Chaos. Yes, that was tragic , so many lives perished , the majority of which were young and innocent .
John Adams once said something like that: The mobs can as bad as the dictator, or even worse.
Deng did the right thing, period. Even today, 20 years later, with China's economy and the living standards of the Chinese improved dramatically , the Chinese in general still need a bowl of rice and a pair of pants more than a poll and a ballot.

[kraftmatic]

If the Chinese don't care about this anymore, I'm not sure why anyone else should.

[who38]

Hear, hear. Clinton should be spending a little more time on setting up an American remembrance of Nagasaki and Hiroshima or remembering the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

[aristippe]

YOU CRAZY

[MNKen]

The Chinese government does not care. The Chinese people do not know about it because it is not allowed to be discussed or taught. For many years, German schools did not teach about hitler or the holocaust. Should we have not cared if they ignored it? Should we have let the German people live in denial about what their government was responsible for? Yes this is smaller and more regionalized, but it is still tyranny on large scale involving the most poplulated country on earth. If they kill hundreds of their own citizens and ignore it historically, what else may happen now or in the future that it ignored/denied/marginalized by their government? If the world also ignores it, we are also responsible for future deaths of possibly thousands or millions.

Yes I am concerned. The Chinese government also has my name as I have signed (in person while in China) a petition by Tianamen Mothers asking the Bejing government to release the names of the citizens killed by the military on June 4, 1989.

[VictorianNovel]

I was listening to a BBC radio broadcast covering the anniversary of the massacre and apparently many of those students who were involved in the protest are now kept under surveillance by the Chinese government 24/7 (their home phonelines are tapped, etc.)

I also saw this fascinating PBS documentary about the Tiananmen massacre and it was disturbing, seeing the video of what was happening. It's also astounding that there are people out there who deny it ever happened in the face of this clear evidence.

[Gasparilla]

If you want to see courage, it was that man. He looks like he probably had a comfortable life, fairly well dressed, and he could have ignored the crackdown, but he took a stand. In a world where there are so many claims of how "brave" someone is for handling a crisis, such as Hollywood celebs, that man was brave. You were a hero, tank man.

[Mystic01]

Yes. I am deeply moved every time I see that picture. He was incredibly brave, far braver than I could be in the face of such brutal repression.

And I continue to be disappointed and appalled at how Bush 41 and Clinton did little or nothing after the Tienanmen massacres. It was back to business-as-usual in no time.

[Georgiapundit]

Yet, some salivated over their flawless Olympics, which should not have taken place without a change of the official communist position on the Tiananmen Square murders.

Amazing 1989 Coverage of the massacre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1v9par4bwE

[Georgiapundit]

This is truly gut wrenching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJBnHMpHGRY

[LMPE]

The obvious point is that around that time, Soviet-backed governments in Eastern Europe were collapsing. If China's government collapsed, then what?

[BlueZoo]

I was wondering if anyone would remember this! We were on vacation when I turned on the tv in our hotel room and saw what was going on. I'll never forget the young man standing in front of that tank, nor will I forget the students crafting the Statue Of Liberty for all to see. Nothing's changed in China since those days 20 years ago but the memories of the Tiananmen Square massacre are indelible.