T’ian-an-men 2005?
Written by Andrew on June 4th, 2005
I wouldn’t bet on it. The blood of Numenor is spent. Since the Communist Party has successfully convinced even the most educated Chinese that the T’ian-an-men Massacre of 1989 never happened, they probably need not be as worried as they appear to be.
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What do you mean? Everyone knows it happened. I have never heard anyone deny it. The fact is most Chinese view this event the way most Americans view Kent State. A bunch of rabble-rousers caught the bad of a crackdown. Is that fair? No of course not. Is it Chinese? Yeah, unfortunately.
There will not be a democratic revolt in China in the near future. The people have no desire to revolt and why would they? Name another time in Chinese history when a more benevolent, peaceful government has ruled. The Communists were less brutal than the Nationalists, sad but true. Every previous imperial dynasty was much more bloodthirsty than even the communists at the height of the Cultural Revolution.
Life has never been better in China than it is today in 2005. Common people have never had more social mobility. Common people have never been better fed, and had more economic opportunity than they do today. Education has never been available to more people than it is today. Why would any Chinese person want to plunge this nation into civil war and chaos? For American style liberty? You and I might risk it all for a drop of freedom but these people never will. They haven’t ever done it before and I don’t see them doing it now. They abhor instability as a society. I often wonder what makes Americans think that the Chinese have the same outlook on life that they do.
The 1989 demonstrations and fledging democratic revolution was initially in response to the massive amounts of corruption that was choking the people. It was also in response to the rank hypocrisy that marked those times. Officials and their families were profiting from capitalism, better education and exchange with the West; something most people had no access to. The same cannot be said today. If China is to become a democracy and not a single party state ruled by an oligarchy of “wise old men” then something fundamental will have to change in Chinese culture. Until that day . . .
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“Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
-Patrick Henry, May 23, 1775.
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See Mike, comparing T’ian-an-men to Kent State is the whole problem. Four people were killed by National Guard in 1970. Anywhere from 1,000 to 7,000 were killed in 1989. I’m not saying that Chinese have no idea that anything happened in 1989, but unless they were actually there they do not understand the gravity of it, that their countrymen were essentially murdered by their own government. This is a general trend in China, just ask anyone how Lao She died, how he “committed suicide”.
The workers and students who demonstrated in 1989 were simply rabble-rousers, they were on the front end of a world-wide movement for democracy that ultimately brought the Soviets to their knees. This animus of liberty was no more native to Poland, Hungary, the Baltics, or Czechoslovakia than it was to China, and yet it has taken a true grip in the former and not the latter.
Why? I sure couldn’t tell you. The anarchist-socialist movement of May 4, 1919 (and it’s logical result, the Communist Revolution) would seem to prove that foreign philosophies can prevail to change the course of Chinese society, but apparently there are limits to that.
I think we’re in basic agreement, there will be no revolution in China. Unless, of course, the CCP loses the Mandate of Heaven. In that case they will certainly rue Confucius’ survival of the Cultural Revolution.
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Also, HUZZAH to Patrick Henry. If there is a revolution in China, sign me up for whatever Clair Chennault Brigade we set up. My grandfather didn’t fight to free China from the Japanese for nothing.
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The whole problem is that it is not ME who is comparing Tiananmen to Kent State. It is the Chinese. I know that the two events are completely different in their nature and outcomes but the Chinese view Tiananmen the same way we view Kent.
I don’t think the guys in the square were rabble-rousers but I have certainly heard them referred to that way. They are people who made life worse for everyone through their “selfish” actions. At least according to the Chinese.
The May 1919 movement was only success for a time. In my view its affect lasted until 1979 when the ruling elite of communism realized what a farce Marxism really was and shucked it off without actually saying that they had. The only thing socialist still left in China is the rhetoric.
You want to know why the Poles are free today and the Chinese aren’t? Because the Chinese are not Western Europeans, nor do they share that culture. They do not desire freedom above all else. Give me liberty or give me death. I love those words, but the vast majority of Chinese find them hollow. Give them stability or give them death. Give them food or give them death. Give their children a better life or give them death and if liberty be the price, so be it. At least that has been the Chinese thought for the last 5,000 years.
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Ditto, I would fight for a free China. I think Andrew that in our lifetimes we may yet get that chance.
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