World won’t forget Tiananmen Square, US and Taiwan say on 36th anniversary of massacre

a year ago by MicroWave to c/world

Date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, with government using increasingly sophisticated tools to censor its discussion

There is no official death toll but activists believe hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed by China’s People’s Liberation Army in the streets around Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s central plaza, on 4 June 1989.

The date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, and the Chinese government employs extensive and increasingly sophisticated resources to censor any discussion or acknowledgment of it inside China. Internet censors scrub even the most obscure references to the date from online spaces, and activists in China are often put under increased surveillance or sent on enforced “holidays” away from Beijing.

New research from human rights workers has found that the sensitive date also sees heightened transnational repression of Chinese government critics overseas by the government and its proxies.

load all comments

febra -25 points a year ago

You could pick so many more things to criticize China for especially from its past, verifiable events, yet the west always picks Tiananmen Square, making sure to pick the image of the guy standing in front of the tank, but somehow always forgets to show the video of the guy climbing on top of the tank, asking soldiers to turn around to where the protesters are, and somehow forget mentioning that literally half the casualties were soldiers that were set ablaze. Even diplomatic cables at the time either leaked or declassified prove that.

save

path: 0 17459843, hotness: undefined, score: -25, children: 17

Gsus4 -10 points a year ago

The most intriguing alt-history stuff I've read about it was that the protesters were "lefties" protesting the Dengist attempts at liberalization and confucianist reform, because in one of the videos the protesters were singing socialist anthems e.g. 1st international. It looked like the last gasp of the cultural revolution. But I'm not sure how to check any of this (certainly not from the Chinese archives and the rest of the world only has videos...and the cables you mention), it's probably just another bullshit story to cover up what happened.

save

path: 0 17459843 17464107, hotness: undefined, score: -10, children: 8

febra -2 points a year ago

save

path: 0 17459843 17464107 17464559, hotness: undefined, score: -2, children: 7

grozzle 11 points a year ago

"The consensus is also that there was no actual “massacre” in the square."

oh, so because hundreds of people were killed in the streets just outside the square, that's alright then, no need to mention it, let's keep defending the authoritarian state, huh.

save

path: 0 17459843 17464107 17464559 17472798, hotness: undefined, score: 11, children: 6

febra -4 points a year ago

save

path: 0 17459843 17464107 17464559 17472798 17474359, hotness: undefined, score: -4, children: 5

grozzle 10 points a year ago

the DW article does mention that most of the killings were on the streets outside the square.

you disingenuously cherry-picked your quote to imply there was no massacre at all.

with your demonstrated level of respect for human life, it's entirely unsurprising that you admire authoritarian violent regimes.

save

path: 0 17459843 17464107 17464559 17472798 17474359 17474857, hotness: undefined, score: 10, children: 2

diamat -5 points a year ago

It actually matters where people died because in the square there were unarmed student protesters and outside the square were armed workers battling it out with military which resulted in an almost even split in casualties between workers and military. A massacre entails armed people rounding up unarmed people and just straight up slaughtering people.

save

path: 0 17459843 17464107 17464559 17472798 17474359 17474857 17476250, hotness: undefined, score: -5, children: 0

Rules:

Lemmy World Partners

Recommendations

Rules:

Lemmy World Partners

Recommendations