There were more than 1,000 foreign journalists in Beijing
on the night of the army's final drive to clear Tiananmen [sic.] Square, and many of them followed the advance of the main Peopled Liberation Army (P.L.A.)assault force through
the western suburbs as it plowed murderously through the
crowds of laobaixing that formed at all points to block its
path. Most of the foreign film footage of the massacre was
shot in this sector of the city, in neighborhoods like Muxidi, Fuxingman and Liubukou, where hundreds of unarmed protesters and innocent bystanders were mowed down by random gunfire from semiautomatic weapons. The troops apparently made no distinction between these people and the small number who hurled stones, rocks and Molotov cocktails or set fire to vehicles that had been used as road-blocks. Since this main theater of the massacre was by and large well covered by the foreign news media, we will focus here on some lesser-known aspects of the action along western Changan and Fuxingmen subsequently dubbed "Blood
Boulevard" by the people of Beijing.
I find this passage strangely familiar with Egypt, Syria, Ukraine or the early becoming of the Romanian revolution with whom I was very familiar. So this is pretty much about the Blood Boulevard than Tienanmen Square. Even the 1,400 soldiers 'shed their weapons and ran away' paragraph has recent echos.
After fifty days of occupation by the pro-democracy
movement, the square had finally been "returned to the
people." That would make Occupy Wall Street blush.
And last passage could serve as TL;DR
They exploit the fact that no one died during the clearing of Tiananmen Square to conceal the truth that some deaths and injuries did occur there earlier. And they use the fact that there was no bloodbath in Tiananmen Square to cover up the truth about the bloodbaths in Muxidi, Nanchizi and Liubukou. Why do we give them such an opportunity?"
What's up with the [sic]? That's how you spell Tiananmen. You might as well write "There were [sic] more than 1,000 foreign journalists in Beijing [sic] on the night..."
I am a Chinese student, some of my friends and I hold something like a hangout every year about June 4th to in memory of this event. But most of students nowadays in Chinese university have no idea what happened at 1989.
What's more, It is very hard to figure out what happened exactly because although many articles like this provide some limited information, many of the statements have no hard backing evidence and are not persuasive.
But I think the action GFW blocks google every year about this time contribute conversely to making many young people with high education get to know the Tiananmen because many of them would like to know why the government is doing this.
"It is very hard to figure out what happened exactly" - This is exactly the reason why I am very skeptical about all these articles. Growing up in China, I first learned about this on Wikipedia back in the days when it was not blocked. I was furious about it back then. The fact that I had to learn this from Wikipedia for the first time just made it even worse. I tried a lot to collect more information about this. Most of the stuff I found was pointing fingers at the government and military. Being young and naive, I full-heartedly trust every single piece of it.
Now I live in Canada and have stayed outside of the Chinese censorship for almost 6 years now. My opinion have changed quite a lot. I used to believe the idea of communism brainwashing, but now I have a feeling that this sort of brainwashing and censorship goes both ways. Remember the famous tank man? It's one of the important icon of this event and was marked as a symbol of the Chinese government's oppression and brutality. That image/video was widely spread in the western medias. The majority of the public believe he was rolled over by the tank, because you know, Chinese government are evil. The full video was posted earlier on Reddit. Many was shocked to find out that the tank tried to drive around him and eventually stopped until the tank man was pulled away by someone else. Why the mainstream media never showed the full video to the public? Because it contradicted with the brutal image of Chinese government/military that they were trying to portrait to the public. Propaganda is a funny thing. Bearing stereotype and ignorance, both side will hold a strong belief that they are right.
I am by no means saying Chinese government is innocent. They pretty evil imo. I am just trying to say is that it is very hard to figure out what really happened now that both sides are extremely biased and ignorant towards the other end. I personally believe there were students killed and injured during the military intervention, but I am strongly skeptical against the massacre claim as there was no solid evidence so far. The truth probably lies somewhere in between the stories.
In the United States, poor and working people in Los Angeles performed similar actions around this time of year back in 1992. They were concerned with the brutality of the local police, and how the government was unaccountable for it. The US government sent the army and the Marines in and killed some people. This is also unknown to most students in the US nowadays. If it is brought up they say the people were thugs, rioters, gang members, criminals etc. It must have been a lot of criminals since it took thousands of heavily armed police, national guard and military to get back control.
If there is a problem of awareness inside China due to censorship, then large numbers of websites around the world posting something commemorating Tienanmen Square on each anniversary -- if only a standardized graphic linking to more information -- could make a difference.
Usually, actions such as signing an online petition or posing a graphic mean little, but it could help solve this specific problem.
The participating websites wouldn't have to post much information; they only need to prompt people to ask questions and find answers. If the Chinese government blocked all the websites posting the commemoration, it would attract more attention and legitimize the issue's importance (otherwise why would the government make such an effort).
(It would be interesting to see which companies and people with business in China would participate.)
The Communist Party of China prohibits talking about Tiananmen(六四), they hope that the public especially the young in China never know about this.
Because they also know it is not an honorable thing but a great sin.
Thanks for the upload. I often wondered what really happened and this gets closer to the truth. Western media might be downplaying the events of June 4, 1989 because it hits too close to home.
Not so much news, as history; but why this history, here, now? Yes, China is not a politically free country and employs a substantial amount of violence to keep things that way. So do a lot of places. There are more recent examples from China if you care to look carefully for them.
[+] [-] yiedyie|11 years ago|reply
I find this passage strangely familiar with Egypt, Syria, Ukraine or the early becoming of the Romanian revolution with whom I was very familiar. So this is pretty much about the Blood Boulevard than Tienanmen Square. Even the 1,400 soldiers 'shed their weapons and ran away' paragraph has recent echos.
After fifty days of occupation by the pro-democracy movement, the square had finally been "returned to the people." That would make Occupy Wall Street blush.
And last passage could serve as TL;DR
They exploit the fact that no one died during the clearing of Tiananmen Square to conceal the truth that some deaths and injuries did occur there earlier. And they use the fact that there was no bloodbath in Tiananmen Square to cover up the truth about the bloodbaths in Muxidi, Nanchizi and Liubukou. Why do we give them such an opportunity?"
Interesting read.
[+] [-] thaumasiotes|11 years ago|reply
Also, sic isn't an abbreviation.
[+] [-] ant_sz|11 years ago|reply
What's more, It is very hard to figure out what happened exactly because although many articles like this provide some limited information, many of the statements have no hard backing evidence and are not persuasive.
But I think the action GFW blocks google every year about this time contribute conversely to making many young people with high education get to know the Tiananmen because many of them would like to know why the government is doing this.
[+] [-] akfanta|11 years ago|reply
Now I live in Canada and have stayed outside of the Chinese censorship for almost 6 years now. My opinion have changed quite a lot. I used to believe the idea of communism brainwashing, but now I have a feeling that this sort of brainwashing and censorship goes both ways. Remember the famous tank man? It's one of the important icon of this event and was marked as a symbol of the Chinese government's oppression and brutality. That image/video was widely spread in the western medias. The majority of the public believe he was rolled over by the tank, because you know, Chinese government are evil. The full video was posted earlier on Reddit. Many was shocked to find out that the tank tried to drive around him and eventually stopped until the tank man was pulled away by someone else. Why the mainstream media never showed the full video to the public? Because it contradicted with the brutal image of Chinese government/military that they were trying to portrait to the public. Propaganda is a funny thing. Bearing stereotype and ignorance, both side will hold a strong belief that they are right.
I am by no means saying Chinese government is innocent. They pretty evil imo. I am just trying to say is that it is very hard to figure out what really happened now that both sides are extremely biased and ignorant towards the other end. I personally believe there were students killed and injured during the military intervention, but I am strongly skeptical against the massacre claim as there was no solid evidence so far. The truth probably lies somewhere in between the stories.
[+] [-] firstOrder|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] afarrell|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gone35|11 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.yc...
[+] [-] hackuser|11 years ago|reply
Usually, actions such as signing an online petition or posing a graphic mean little, but it could help solve this specific problem.
The participating websites wouldn't have to post much information; they only need to prompt people to ask questions and find answers. If the Chinese government blocked all the websites posting the commemoration, it would attract more attention and legitimize the issue's importance (otherwise why would the government make such an effort).
(It would be interesting to see which companies and people with business in China would participate.)
[+] [-] wynemo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pvdm|11 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ePH-1B2-gc
[+] [-] altcognito|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bonchibuji|11 years ago|reply
http://www.thenation.com/article/remembering-tiananmen-squar...
[+] [-] Galaxity|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] tuan5|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lotsofmangos|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjc50|11 years ago|reply
Not so much news, as history; but why this history, here, now? Yes, China is not a politically free country and employs a substantial amount of violence to keep things that way. So do a lot of places. There are more recent examples from China if you care to look carefully for them.
[+] [-] RockyMcNuts|11 years ago|reply