25th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre

The 25^th anniversary of the  Square Massacre has failed to lift the campaign of silence in China which forbids the nation to mourn or even acknowledge the tragedy.  I wonder whether China’s dissidents will ever be granted the freedom to hold officials and political leaders accountable for their actions both past and present.  Thousands of Chinese people, largely my age, who advocated subversion and democracy in Tiananmen Square were eventually slain by their government.  Instead of reaching a solution, Deng Xiaoping thought it easier to annihilate those with the courage to publicly oppose him.  In 1989 the world was watching, eager to see what kind of society China would have.  This event proved that even in modern China you can get rich, but you can’t open your mouth. 

The nation appears to have been under forcible amnesia for the past 25 years.  It was reported that at the time the bloodied demonstration didn’t even receive a mention on television.  Instead the Beijing Circus was repeatedly broadcast on the state-run TV channels nationwide.

For the idealistic students who gathered in Tiananmen Square and the thousands that supported them to face down the ageing autocratic government, the trauma, guilt and rage from what followed has haunted the Chinese people and the world ever since.  From looking at the Chinese population you wouldn’t know they were mourning.  This is largely because those who speak out about the event in ‘89 can expect to be detained for ‘provoking trouble’ as Pu Zhiquang is.  Pu Zhiquang who is currently being detained by the government, was among the students who survived the tragedy.  Now a Human Rights Lawyer he is still an advocate for the true pro-democratic movement in China.

This anniversary will be marked on mainland China by an enormous void.  Not by reason of disinterest by the people but the aggressive suppression by the Chinese Government.  However, in Hong Kong a remarkable amount of people are gathering in defiance of China’s campaign of silence.  Eerily reminiscent of Tiananmen square, a majority of those unifying in Hong Kong are students, most of whom were not born at the time of the event.  One of whom said “We will never forget the Tiananmen massacre, because until now there's been no justice”.  Protesters in Hong Kong say they are gathering for those in the mainland who are unable to mourn.  They are speaking for those who cannot speak out.  This represents a new age; a generation of people who will continue to fight for democracy without fear despite intimidation.

For me, the image of one man standing down a line of military tanks on a street stained with the blood of those slain the night before speaks a thousand words about the brave people of Beijing in 1989.  This is symbolic of those who continue to fight for their vision of an equal and democratic China despite their governments oppression. 

“Tiananmen showed the world that the Chinese people are no different from everyone else. When given the chance to express their views freely, they seized it and howled in unison their desire for democracy, freedom and human rights.”

-K