Twenty years ago, I was just a student in high school, but I remember watching the events unfold on the national news. I was a bit shocked, but it took many years later after understanding the events, growing a bit older, and reading a lot more that I began to fully understand what had happened.
The day in 1989 is censored by the Chinese government which is why it is now becoming known as May 35th instead of today’s date (since that date is blocked by the censors). This year those speaking about the day are trying to refer to it as “May 35th,” “535″ and “VIIV” (Roman numerals).
The Chinese government has blacked out the events leading up to twenty years ago and all Internet web pages regarding that date for its citizens thereby limiting the knowledge of the events to those outside of China. Today, Hotmail, CNN, twitter, WordPress (host of this blog), Flickr, and Blogger were blocked by the Chinese government in order to prevent their citizens from learning about its history. YouTube has been blocked since March when the Chinese government found user uploaded videos there depicting the incidents.
We were assured there would be no legal consequences if we opened fire.
– Chen Guang, Chinese soldier
Somewhere between 241 and 10,000 civilians were killed. The Red Cross states that around 2,600 died and the official Chinese government figure is 241 dead with 7,000 wounded. Some journalists reported around 3,000 deaths and some lists of the dead created from underground sources report up to 5,000. NATO intelligence reported around 7,000 and the Soviet Union reported around 10,000. The Tiananmen Square massacre, June Fourth Movement, June Fourth Incident, and Six-Four names have been used to describe the events.
The Chinese government continues to deny that anything happened, even though there were journalists with cameras and personal accounts of what happened has escaped the borders.
You can view the censorship by visiting the Chinese version of Google(google.cn) and search for “Tiananmen Square“. There’s exactly 0 returned results. The English version of Google returns 2,180,000 results.
One of the most iconic photographs of my lifetime was taken during this event. A man, called “Tank Man“, stood in front of the oncoming tanks in protest. This photograph has been circulated and seen by nearly everyone, but the Chinese citizens. In Hong Kong (now part of China), about 100,000 people assembled for a candle-lit vigil.
A China that has made enormous progress economically and is emerging to take its rightful place in global leadership should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal.
– Hillary Clinton, June 3, 2009
Yesterday, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, called China to release the prisoners detained after the student protests. The US congress also passed a similar appeal with 396 yea, 1 nay, and 37 not voting. The only person to oppose the resolution was the former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul (R, TX-14). His explanation is given in his statement on the resolution.
Resources:
- 1989 Tiananman Square Protest (Wikipedia)
- Tank Man (Wikipedia)
- Tank Man video (YouTube)
- Frontline: the tank man (PBS)
- Trying to Evade the Censors (New York Times)
- While Beijing Stays Silent, Hong Kong Remembers Tiananmen (TIME)
- Tiananmen Square, 20 Years Later: News, Photos And Video From Around The World (Huffington Post)
- Tiananmen Square Scars Soldier Turned Artist (New York Times)
- House Vote on Passage: House Resolution 489: Recognizing the twentieth anniversary of the suppression of protesters and citizens (Gov Track)
