An Anniversary That Won’t Be Forgotten – 1989 June 4th

Twenty one years ago, June 4th 1989.

(Paraphrased from Wikipedia)
The protests were sparked by the death of a pro-democracy and anti-corruption official, whom protesters wanted to mourn, and by the eve of the funeral, 100,000 people had gathered. Participants included disillusioned Party members as well as free market reformers, who were generally against the government’s authoritarianism and voiced calls for economic change and democratic reform within the structure of the government.

The actual number of deaths is not known, and there is no video footage or evidence of any kind showing violence in the square itself- all video evidence shows violence in the streets around the square.

Following the conflict, the government conducted widespread arrests of protesters and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around the nation, banned the foreign press from the country and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under house arrest.

It’s interesting, because I heard no news, or talk about this incident in Beijing at all today, and only realized that today was the anniversary of the massacre from CNN.

I hope this blog doesn’t get blocked for posting about this… lol.

-Duncan