June 4th, 20 Years after Tiananmen

gazing down the Tiananmen tank barrel

(also on YouTube)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-nXT8lSnPQ

In the words of Nicholas Kristoff, an eyewitness, as he recalls in the NYT on the June 4 massacre at Tiananmen Square:

The night was filled with gunfire — and with Chinese standing their ground to block the troops. I parked my bike at Tiananmen, and the People’s Liberation Army soon arrived from the other direction. The troops fired volley after volley at the crowd on the Avenue of Eternal Peace; at first I thought these were blanks, but then the night echoed with screams and people began to crumple.

The image still haunts, because of the events that followed, and because so little has really changed.

Still no representation or democracy, still Corruption and repression. No rule of Law, only the Parties law and the gun’s of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Thousands march in Hong Kong to mark and remember the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen killings, and 150,000 at Tiananmen hold a vigil in Hong Kong, in one of the few such events on Chinese soil.

And the Party still has to acknowledge, let alone answer for their actions. We still still don’t know how many thousands died, how many were jail, and how many are still in jail. No amount of economic gains can justify the massacre.

3 Replies to “June 4th, 20 Years after Tiananmen”

  1. Visited your site via a sntt link. A little surprised to see such a topic. As a Chinese, I’m grateful for your concern and care to my country. Curious to know if you have any relation to China as your article looks similar in style to those by discontent people in my country.

  2. Thank you for your comments.

    The article is my own, as someone who watched the events of the Days leading up to June 4th with Hope. and then with horror.

  3. Certainly I didn’t suspect that’s your article. I just found that’s similar
    to my compatriots’. You know it’s little discussed in formal sites in my
    country, so I’m a little suprised to see that in a non-political blog.
    After I saw your post about Chinese Lunar Year, I understood your connection to China.

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