Why Tiananmen Still Matters
While I was away, the 20th anniversary of the Tiannamen Square massacre on June 4, 1989 was observed (except in China). Dan Twining has a great post on why Tiannamen still matters today. Here’s his starting point:
“We should start from the premise that the crackdown, and China’s subsequent rise as an authoritarian rather than a democratic superpower, was not inevitable. We know from both The Tiananmen Papers and Zhao Ziyang’s memoirs that the Communist Party leadership was split on whether to use force against the protestors. There is little question that China’s regime was under threat — mass protests had erupted not only in Beijing but in more than 180 cities across China, endangering the regime’s survival.”
Go read the rest.
Cross-posted at Conventional Folly
2 Responses to “Why Tiananmen Still Matters”
Don't forget the Kent State Massacre.
That happened right here in the good old U S of A.
And not that long ago either, relative to Tiananmen..
The Chinese leadership chose to kill as many students as necessary in order to preserve their hold on power. There is no comparison to Kent State, which (as I understand) was the result of excesses by National Guardsmen acting on their own, not orders from the White House.