Remember this photo from 1989? I’m reading here that this photo was taken from the sixth floor of the Beijing Hotel, a half mile away. Ironically this brave soul was facing the Chi-com tanks on a street named Chang’an Boulevard. Translation in english? Avenue of Eternal Peace, painfully ironic. The lone freedom fighter versus the grinding steel tank- gears both of machinery and the Iron-Fist State. The unknown Chinese man, daring to confront an enclave whose fate to this day is unkown. Is our fate set in stone?

The June 4 20th anniversary brings up the importance of the demonstration that led up to the government crackdown, ominous parallels to our current state of affairs. Most of my piece truly speaks for itself and the evils of socialism and centralized state-control. Click here for a timeline of the events.

A brief history to start with. First off the demonstrations were orchestrated and led by intellectuals and students. In today’s America we essentially have students and intellectuals that protest freedom and capitalism. Initially the protesters were mourning the death of a pro-democracy official Hu Yaobang. Over 100,000 people initially gathered and were mostly rallying around anti-authoritrian themes. Calling for economic freedom as well, the protest peaked at 1.2 million citizens.

The gathering lasted for 7 weeks until the communist government decided to quelch the citizen calls for freedom. Orders were put in to the military and a fleet of tanks. This government action was justified as a ”counterrevolutionary rebellion” as the iron-fist crushed the protests, openly firing on innocent people . To this day it is not known how many souls perished, the Chinese Red Cross estimated 2,600, American sources put the toll at 3000. At the end of this piece I have a reader that has a familial first-hand account of the massacre, he thinks the death toll and wounded totals far exceed any government account. Accordingly in a NYT article here, the data is conflicted and it seems that the toll was realistically closer to 1000 with 7000 wounded, I am suspect as this is from the NYT. Many bodies of murdered students were carried away by loved ones or friends, the military also did it’s best to dispose of bodies without a damning body count.

I am putting forth condensed points from the timeline linked above, things that stand out to me. I have italicized where taken directly from the timeline. For the timeline again click here –

April 18-20 – “Party leaders suspect the demonstrations to be led by ‘black-hands’ and ‘bourgeois liberal elements’, Premier Li argues that protests should be ‘nipped in the bud’.”

April 25 – “Party elder Deng Xiaoping, the de facto head of state, declares that the students aim to overthrow him and the Communist Party. Deng decides the Party has thus far been “tolerant and restrained,” but the time has come for action. “We must explain to the whole Party and nation that we are facing a most serious political struggle.”

April 26 – The State-run People’s Daily runs – “The Necessity for a Clear Stand Against Turmoil,” thereby stating that, “This is a well-planned plot … to confuse the people and throw the country into turmoil.”

April 28 – May 3 – “Party leaders are aware of the growing foreign press coverage of the demonstrations, but remain split over how to stop the protests and get the students to return to classes. Zhao Ziyang’s camp advocates negotiation and stresses the government should address legitimate complaints, such as the need for political reform.”

May 13 – In anticipation of a visit to Beijing by Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev, students start a hunger strike and a manifesto is circulated saying – “The nation is in crisis — beset by rampant inflation, illegal dealing by profiteering officials, abuses of power, corrupt bureaucrats, the flight of good people to other countries and deterioration of law and order. Compatriots, fellow countrymen who cherish morality, please hear our voices!”

May 16 – Government officials are unable to greet Gorbachev in Tiananmen Square, thus enraging them, Li Peng stands against government capitulation.

May 17 – Martial Law planned. “This is the unshirkable duty of the Party and the government.”


May 19 – Martial Law declared. 1.2 million protesters stage a mass sit-in including police, military, and industrial workers. Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang is removed from office. New Party General Secretary Peng appears on state television – “We must adopt firm and resolute measures to end the turmoil swiftly, to maintain the leadership of the party as well as the socialist system.”

May 20 – People’s Liberation Army attempts to occupy Beijing. Protestors block their access to the streets. “You had these … touching moments of the people appealing to the army to join them, and feeding them, and giving them water, and saying, you know, ‘Could be your son. Could be your daughter,’ says Orville Schell, who was in Beijing at the time. “And [you have] these sort of doe-eyed, puzzled soldiers, who were mostly country people, weren’t experienced with big city life, just wondering what was going on here. And not wanting to hurt anybody.”

May 24 – The troops leave the area and government officials are humiliated in their view.

May 25-June 1 – Government officials devise a strategy to end the conflict. “Armed troops will be sent in from every military district in the country.”

June 3 – “As word spreads that hundreds of thousands of troops are approaching from all four corners of the city, Beijingers flood the streets to block them, as they had done two weeks earlier. People set up barricades at every major interstion….the citizens become aggressive as the army tries to break through their barricades. They yell at the soldiers and some throw rocks; someone sets a bus on fire. The soldiers start firing on the unarmed civilians with AK-47s loaded with battlefield ammunition.”

June 4 – The soldiers are told that “they must clear the square by 6:00 a.m. — with no exceptions or delays.” “About 4:00 a.m., student leaders put the matter to a vote: Leave the square, or stay and face the consequences.” The majority votes to leave. “The students vacate the square under the gaze of thousands of soldiers.” The most chilling aspect to this end? “Later that morning, some people — believed to be the parents of the student protestors — try to re-enter Tiananmen Square via Chang’an Boulevard. The soldiers order them to leave, and when they don’t, open fire, taking down dozens of people at a time.”

Socialism is evil, barbaric and in it’s purest, most naked form; utter human depravity. The philosophy of Marxism, Leninism, Moaism, destroy the human spirit and rule with an iron-fist. Not even a country as exceptional as the United States of America can escape the lessons of history. For if we are to ignore the lessons of history and of our Founders, our country will eventually become a victim of it.

The Tiananmen Manifesto again – “The nation is in crisis — beset by rampant inflation, illegal dealing by profiteering officials, abuses of power, corrupt bureaucrats, the flight of good people to other countries and deterioration of law and order. Compatriots, fellow countrymen who cherish morality, please hear our voices!”

Parallels to modern-day America….

Update 1 : Fellow CA blogger MAinfo has a story up detailing the fact that the Chinese government is blocking access to major internet sites and search engines around the Tiananmen Square massacre. The Chinese government has not changed folks, a communist is a communist. Click here for her story, replete with several links.

Update 2 : I have recieved some very moving statement from readers on this story –

Reader William said – “During my visit to the “windy city,” I met some folks who were actually from Poland, having lived there under a communist regime. They told me that the democrat party of today, especially under Obama’s policies and his thugish ways of achieving them, is exactly what they experienced growing up in Poland. They said if this guy isn’t restrained from his relentless plunge into the horrors of Marxism, soon, we will all be living the nightmare of collectivism. This is the very reason they left Poland in the first place, to start life anew in the last bastion of freedom known as America.”

Reader MadMath 1 said -“My first fiance’s parents were from China and were able to migrate in 1966 because they saw what was coming from Mao’s Cultrual Revolution. They were shocked that it took 33 years for the protesters and the people to rise up. They thought it would happen sooner. They weren’t surprised by the response. What surprised them was how the dems really backed the Communists and covered up the massacre. I would say about 10% were killed or wounded, but we’ll never really know because everything was too well covered up. I fear that it can, if we continue the course we’re taking, happen here as this administration is doing everything short of shooting to shut up all dissilents of BO. The media today would be all too willing to spin it as well.”