Rebuilding China's Moral Foundation by Telling the Truth About Tiananmen

Twenty years ago, the world watched as Chinese people stood up for freedom, and the People's Liberation Army responded by sending in tanks and guns. Millions of Chinese took to the streets in 1989 because they wanted a say in the future of their own country. But their dreams were dashed on the night of June 3rd-4th and have never recovered.

Today, young Chinese are quoted as saying they know and care little about events in 1989. This lack of interest is the result of a deliberate effort by the Chinese government to erase memories of June 4th from the public consciousness through a combination of censorship, propaganda, repression and violence. Even privately, most Chinese people no longer discuss what they saw and experienced in 1989; the psychological burden is too much for individuals to carry. People who do speak out, like the Tiananmen Mothers whose children were killed on June 4th, are imprisoned, exiled, threatened or otherwise silenced.

Tiananmen remains a taboo both in the media and in China's new vast cyberspace. Tens of thousands of government censors police the Internet, and webpages that carry any public discussion on this topic are blocked or deleted. Just yesterday, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, and a long list of other websites were blocked by the Chinese Great Firewall because of the authorities' growing fear and anxiety over any public discussion of Tiananmen as the 20-year anniversary approaches.

In this environment, a recent gathering in Beijing was truly significant. Organizing themselves only by word of mouth (without the use of cell phones or email to avoid government surveillance), nineteen scholars, editors and lawyers held a seminar discussing 20 years since Tiananmen. The seminar, which took place on May 10, Mother's Day, started with a moment of silence, paying tribute to the Tiananmen Mothers. Cui Weiping (崔卫平), professor at the Beijing Film Academy, started her presentation by asking: "What kind of negative impact has it had on our society for us to keep silent and to conceal the event for two decades? How has it harmed the spirit and morality of this nation? What kind of losses have we suffered in our own work and life? Are we still intending to continue this silence?"

The Chinese government has whitewashed the history of 1989 by turning the country's attention to its rapid economic growth, improved living standards, and rising global status. The truth about Tiananmen has been replaced with deception, indifference and cynicism. As the history of the brutality of June 4th is more deeply repressed, society is becoming more violent. "If we do not change and put limits on such massive violence, how are we able to stop the subsequent lesser violence that takes place on every corner and at any time in the country?" Cui Weiping asked. "That kind of blatant violence once took place on this land of ours, and at the "heart" of this land. The beliefs and demands of innocent young people and a large number of the general public were brutally trampled on. And no justifiable assessment has been made of it so far." Cui Weiping and the millions of others who witnessed 1989 and remember the power of both the protests and the massacre, know that Chinese society cannot progress to its full potential without claiming its past.

The Mother's Day gathering was just such an effort, to tell the truth about what happened and to seek ways to move forward. Other brave individuals have also breached the silence in recent years, including Xiao Han, a lecturer at Beijing's University of Politics and Law who last year discussed his experiences in 1989 with his students in class and wrote about it on his blog. Ye Fu, a writer and successful commercial book publisher recently wrote a series of personal essays on his blog revealing the name of a prominent writer who betrayed him in 1989 and got him imprisoned for his activism. Bloggers and other netizens also increasingly use coded language, images, and other tactics to write about the topic under the radar of Internet censors. China's future needs to be built on this piece of history. If the country is to rebuild its moral foundation, it will depend on people like the Tiananmen Mothers, Cui Weiping, Xiao Han and Ye Fu who have the courage to recount the truth of what happened on the night of June 4th. Others who experienced Tiananmen must talk about it, tell their children, remember their history, and thus defeat their own fear, self-deception and cynicism. As Cui Weiping said, "We either have to endure the weakening and impairment of our spirit and soul caused by the awkward situation until we are atrophied and paralyzed, or we stand up, speak the truth, and take back our dignity as human beings."

Confronting the truth of history requires strength and courage. But the energy it unleashes will be powerful enough to make China a truly humane, just, and open society. Without a basic grounding in the truth about Tiananmen, there is no moral foundation for China's rise. Today, even the United States and Europe seek help from China to resolve the economic crisis and global warming. But if a government cannot come to terms with its own history and make peace with its own people, how can the world trust the myth of its "peaceful rise"?

Comments

[shane9219]

"Twenty years ago, the world watched as Chinese people stood up for freedom, and the People’s Liberation Army responded by sending in tanks and guns ...."

This narrative is both too simplistic and sensational. It has been the typical way of selling their point of views by Chinese liberals. They conveniently forget that intense standoffs between students and government do occur regularly around the world. In US, there was Kent State Massacre happened not long ago.

Yes, truth should be told eventually, it should also include the narraive of Chinese liberals.

[newdates]

I totally agree with Xiao Qiang that" Chinese goverment whitewashed the history of 1989 by turning the country's attention to its rapid economic growth, improved living standards, and rising global status. The truth about Tiananmen has been replaced with deception, indifference and cynicism".

Pretty much so that Chinese goverment acts like a baldhead monk holding an umbrera on a sunny day, 無法無天, a lawless , a tyrannical regime, a bloody communist country that will be overthrown wheever the second "June 4" is mature.

Sooner or later, the Communist China will have no choice but face the truth. there are millions of Chinese students, businessmen live and work outside China, Most of them have conscience and appreciate the ways of life in Western world, We have to put pressure on the dictatorship for changes and bring democracy systematically to the modern China.

[ModernTimes1]

Chinese people with help from their government embarked on their road to the current economic freedom and relaitve prosperity. What have you done to help this amazing transformation?
Except repeat tired and bankrupt liberal slogans,

[wereeverywhere]

"By freedom is meant, under the present bourgeois conditions of production, free trade, free selling and buying." Karl Marx, "Communist Manifesto"
see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KUl4yfABE4 for the animated version.

[FairTalk]

I do not agree that the Chinese gov has witewashed the history of the Tiananmen Affair.

First of all, the Chinese media covered all the unrest in China in the spring of '89, which started in Tibet, on March 10th, spread to Xian, and spread like wildfire thru China, landing in Beijing only because Hu died, and some people in their late twenties and early thirties laid a wreath there.

I was able to watch all of it on TV every day. There are NO chinese who didn't know about this. In Shanghai people all over the city boarded up their apartments, all the way up to the 4th, and even 5th and 6th floors. The Union went on strike, and colleges closed. MILLIONS of people "paraded in the streets" demanding the ouster of Deng's open market policies.

Smash Small Bottle! Speed up the New Democracy!

Unfortunately, the spontaneous demonstrations of the people was upstaged by the overseas planned disruptions. Faxes, individuals, professional disrupters, "leaders" and paid "thuge" flew into China unchallenged.

All of this was shown on China TV.

Demonstrations took place in hundreds of cities and towns all over China.

Do not delude yourself that China is whitwashing this. It is, you my dears, that have sadly been misinformed. Ask yourself, to what degree was the US gov involved, and why don't you know this?
The Chinese do know this. I know, I was there.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

The US has no moral authority to tell China to look to its past and tell the truth when it cannot do so with torture. The Iraq war has been ongoing for what 6 years and yet the US does not want to tell the truth of this war and its horrors.

Tell the truth and show others how it is done.

[Tyler-Durden]

great article. unfortunately what you will see in China is what is occurring in America. the youth are hypnotized by consumerism and materialism. it is more important to get the new "gadget" than to seek the truth about their govt's manipulation of the people and the economy for their own self interests.

a materialistic society is easily satiated and controllable. the chinese govt is totalitarian and their focus has always been control. now they are learning from western elites that MONEY IS POWER, and they are consuming as much as possible.

soon the yuan will be the new world currency, and the chinese will be the new consumer of the global economy, as their middle class grows to replace america's. the world elite will see it through, as their only concern is profits. china will continue to buy our resources, our corporations, our land.

the chinese people are the means to an end for the communist govt.

we have witnessed it here, as americans gave up their rights, manipulated by fear and confused with lies and rhetoric. illegal searches, control of the media, unjustified arrests, torture, secret jails, secret wars, all in the great FREE country that is America. do you think china will stand up against a repressive govt that is finally beginning to allow them a more comfortable life? Americans won't even stand up to their repressive govt as they give us a less comfortable life!

good luck with your activism.

[yappnmutt]

sorry. you are talking to a country of people who have allowed the bailing out of the top1% of wealth owners, who willingly paid for it out of their own pockets. this is a country of people who have not seen a pay raise in more than a generation and still claim they live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. this is a country of people who have allowed the most heinous of crimes inflicted upon individuals and entire countries directly and indirectly in our name without demanding accountability. you can't expect the people of this country to worry about the people of another country. we don't care about ourselves.

[ModernTimes1]

Yappnmutt, do you let your family define you solely by your negative traits? Of course not.
Then leave off your narrow minded criterion of evaluating what United States is.

[yappnmutt]

your rationale reminds me of many examples in the legal system where a heinous crime is commited by a prominent person yet he manages to parade a host of "friends" defending his character at the sentencing hearing.

[superstition]

"Let this day be a reminder to all how important The Freedom of Information Act and Transparency are in the US."



Obama's support for new secrecy powers

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/01/photos/


Greenwald: 
"What kind of a country passes a law that has no purpose other than to empower its leader to suppress evidence of the torture it inflicted on people? (This) is part of a broader trend whereby the Government simply retroactively changes the law whenever it decides it does not want to abide by it. 

Other than creating an illusion of transparency and accountability, what's the point of having laws that purport to restrict what the Government can do if political officials just retroactively waive those laws whenever they want? What's the point of having a FOIA law if the Government will simply pass a new law exempting itself from FOIA's mandates any time it loses in court and wants to conceal evidence anyway? 

Given that anything which reflects poorly on our Government can be said to endanger our troops and American citizens, why stop here? Why not just have a general power of suppression whereby the President can keep any evidence secret as long as his Defense Secretary decrees that its disclosure will 'endanger' the troops?"

Rachel Maddow and Jonathan Turley on the obstruction of justice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG9Nj0OizCA

Protecting abusers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4JphqRbT0E

Indefinite "preventative detention"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uuWVHT1WUY

[LeonBNJ]

One of the critical cultural factors of China is that they like order, so they 'obey' their elders and leaders. There is no doubt that the actions in Tiananmen Square were a challange to that concept of order but more importantly, it challanged the leaderships on a wide range of human rights issues. That includes the one-child only rule, forced abortions, obsene corruption of their leaders, freedom of speech and religion, being able to start a business without bribing officials or forced to make them partners, lack of workplace safety, dirty water, pollution and so on.
Yes, the protests in the Square had to be ended, but the methods of the government were clearly not a police tactic, but a military one, with the full intentions to put the fear in all citizens to never challange the government again, just be complient sheep.

[weslenforever]

The average Chinese Citizen doesn't have any more SAY in what their government "leaders" do or don't do that we do. Money TALKS and integrity WALKS right OUT THE DOOR.

[NicoloM]

Xiao-- thank you for raising the issue. Our guide in Bejing would suddenly stop talking and walk away at various times in the square. Finally I asked him what was going on, and he said he would explain later.
He explained that the people who could come stand next to us with the little lapel pins were from the governement. I later went back and saw those people, and watched them. it is an eerie feeling I don't think we fully understand in this country unless one gets a phone call from overseas (since our government admitted warrantless wiretapping). Niavely I tried to google something over there and thought the computer I was on was broken.
So for Xiao and the other posters on this site-- how do we raise the issue in this coutry-- stop shopping at Walmart?

[ModernTimes1]

"how do we raise the issue in this coutry"
The issue is well familiar to Westerners, especially Americans.
Google the term and get 1,660,000 hit.
Almost any article on Chinese has an obligatory "but Tienanmen square" reference. Regardless of the subject of the article.
If you want to boycott Chinese products start with everything in your house, computer, car, cell phone, books, clothes.
Also don't forget to boycott your mortgage loan and credit cards, because Chinese are carrying a large portion of American debt.

[arle]

I'm sorry... are you actually justifying the censorship practices of China now?

[ibsteve2u]

Wal*Mart doesn't expect you to stop shopping there - they intend to hire 22,000 more people this year for new and expanded stores.

lollll...and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if they were each fluent in Chinese, and well-versed in running local governments.

[FairTalk]

LOL In the US we don't have people wearing lapel pins. We use wiretaps!

[LMPE]

Similarly, here in the US we should drop Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. Those holidays supposedly deal with the "settling" of America, but really celebrate genocide against the indigenous people on a scale far greater than anything that China has done.

[TJCole]

Maybe we should start here at home and prosecute our war criminals and torturers, that might gain us some respect, reestablish the Constitution...and our principles an example to China and the Muslim world..!

[Telemachus]

Co-sign. That was my first thought upon seeing this article.

[ModernTimes1]

On historical note, chaos ushered by various uprisings in Chinese history brought incredible suffering and chaos. And just like Tienanmen rebellion began by people with sincerest wishes for freedom.
Easy to criticize, very difficult to govern.
Coincidentally or not, the uprising ushered in an unprecedented wave of economic freedom and relative prosperity. So the attempted rebellion succeeded in many ways.

[arle]

Well, you always cheer and raise a beer stein with Zionist colonists slaughter native Arabs, or when Coalition forces bomb Afghan and Pakistani villages full of civilians. I suppose it's not a far cry for you to endorse what the Chinese government did at Tienanmen Square as well.

[ModernTimes1]

"The Mother's Day gathering was just such an effort, to tell the truth about what happened and to seek ways to move forward."

But Chinese people HAVE moved forward. Are you keeping up with them?

[arle]

If you think China is setting an example for how the rest of the world has moved forward, then you're ingesting too much melamine and lead. I'd lay off the Chinese imports for a whole.

[FairTalk]

I for one, welcome the truth, but let's start right here. Why have my comments been blocked on the numerous Tiananmen stories here? After all, I was there, I saw what happened, and I have no political agenda, other than supporting the People's Right to Know.

If discussion and debate are supressed here, how can you expect China to do otherwise?

for your information...

The Myth of Tiananmen with eyewitness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbX0gAk3zRA

The Myth of Tiananmen Sq Massacre
http://tiananmenmyth.blogspot.com/

Birth of a Massacre Myth
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080721gc.html

NSA Document determined that it was an accident not premeditated.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/documents/09-02.htm

The significance of Tiananmen Sq to China cannot be underestimated. China would never permit the killing of protesters in this square. Tian = heaven An = peace Men = gate
What happened is a tragedy, but it is China that is being demeaned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZoSuesH9II

Chai Ling calling for the over throw of the Chinese Gov and calling for blood shed so they can get attention
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8fGgkSNkP0

[FairTalk]

Thank you for p[osting my comment with the links, above. It is important for all those calling for the truth to be revealed, to check this out. here is the truth.

After viewing the first video, be sure to click on the "more info" in the grey box on the upper right side of the page. After reading it, click on the links near the bottom. It is right there, folks.

Now, most of the students were caught up in the demonstrations, in Chinese, 'parade in the street," and they really, truely, did not know what it was all about. Now that Zhou's book is out, western media have glomed onto the rant "it was inflation, inflation." Well, that is not quite the whole story. The inflation and the lack of quality food in the state run markets were caused by Deng's open market policies. You see, the best quality meat and produce were withheld from the state run markets and turned over the the new free market stalls, which charged high prices. People were complaining that they could not afford to shop there, and the food left for them in the state markets were low quality.

My students all complained about the quality of their food at college and crowded dorms.

[finnegag]

I essentially agree with the thrust of what you say: censorship, suppression and the genderal effort to erase this event from history continues.

But on a more general point, I think the Western media are obsessed with Tiananmen in a way that is unhelpful.

The history has been oversimplified and, in some cases, distorted for political purposes in the West. The truth of what happened in Tiananmen is terrible and China has been reluctant to face its past. But they will resist this further if those events are exaggerated.

I expand on this here, if anyone in interested
http://garyfinnegan.blogspot.com/2009/06/western-media-are-abusing-tiananmen.html

[FairTalk]

Western media has made a sport of China bashing, the only form of racism that is still permitted in the USA. The real tragedy on the flood of false and misleading stories about Tiananmen, is Americans have been betrayed, and they do not have a clue what the story really is. The idea that people in China don't "remember" is absurd. Just because they don't discuss it with "foreigners" does not mean they don't remember. They just remember it differently, that's all.

[IsaacKuo]

If you favor revealing the truth about Tiananmen, how do you feel about the PRC suppressing the truth?