
Who Died in Beijing, And Why (1990) [pdf] - ca98am79
http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dclarke/public/Munro_Who_Died_in_Beijing_and_Why.pdf
======
yiedyie
_There were more than 1,000 foreign journalists in Beijing on the night of the
army 's final drive to clear Tiananmen [sic.] Square, and many of them
followed the advance of the main Peopled Liberation Army (P.L.A.)assault force
through the western suburbs as it plowed murderously through the crowds of
laobaixing that formed at all points to block its path. Most of the foreign
film footage of the massacre was shot in this sector of the city, in
neighborhoods like Muxidi, Fuxingman and Liubukou, where hundreds of unarmed
protesters and innocent bystanders were mowed down by random gunfire from
semiautomatic weapons. The troops apparently made no distinction between these
people and the small number who hurled stones, rocks and Molotov cocktails or
set fire to vehicles that had been used as road-blocks. Since this main
theater of the massacre was by and large well covered by the foreign news
media, we will focus here on some lesser-known aspects of the action along
western Changan and Fuxingmen subsequently dubbed "Blood Boulevard" by the
people of Beijing._

I find this passage strangely familiar with Egypt, Syria, Ukraine or the early
becoming of the Romanian revolution with whom I was very familiar. So this is
pretty much about the Blood Boulevard than Tienanmen Square. Even the _1,400
soldiers 'shed their weapons and ran away'_ paragraph has recent echos.

 _After fifty days of occupation by the pro-democracy movement, the square had
finally been "returned to the people."_ That would make Occupy Wall Street
blush.

And last passage could serve as TL;DR

 _They exploit the fact that no one died during the clearing of Tiananmen
Square to conceal the truth that some deaths and injuries did occur there
earlier. And they use the fact that there was no bloodbath in Tiananmen Square
to cover up the truth about the bloodbaths in Muxidi, Nanchizi and Liubukou.
Why do we give them such an opportunity? "_

Interesting read.

~~~
thaumasiotes
What's up with the [sic]? That's how you spell Tiananmen. You might as well
write "There were [sic] more than 1,000 foreign journalists in Beijing [sic]
on the night..."

Also, sic isn't an abbreviation.

------
ant_sz
I am a Chinese student, some of my friends and I hold something like a hangout
every year about June 4th to in memory of this event. But most of students
nowadays in Chinese university have no idea what happened at 1989.

What's more, It is very hard to figure out what happened exactly because
although many articles like this provide some limited information, many of the
statements have no hard backing evidence and are not persuasive.

But I think the action GFW blocks google every year about this time contribute
conversely to making many young people with high education get to know the
Tiananmen because many of them would like to know why the government is doing
this.

~~~
akfanta
"It is very hard to figure out what happened exactly" \- This is exactly the
reason why I am very skeptical about all these articles. Growing up in China,
I first learned about this on Wikipedia back in the days when it was not
blocked. I was furious about it back then. The fact that I had to learn this
from Wikipedia for the first time just made it even worse. I tried a lot to
collect more information about this. Most of the stuff I found was pointing
fingers at the government and military. Being young and naive, I full-
heartedly trust every single piece of it.

Now I live in Canada and have stayed outside of the Chinese censorship for
almost 6 years now. My opinion have changed quite a lot. I used to believe the
idea of communism brainwashing, but now I have a feeling that this sort of
brainwashing and censorship goes both ways. Remember the famous tank man? It's
one of the important icon of this event and was marked as a symbol of the
Chinese government's oppression and brutality. That image/video was widely
spread in the western medias. The majority of the public believe he was rolled
over by the tank, because you know, Chinese government are evil. The full
video was posted earlier on Reddit. Many was shocked to find out that the tank
tried to drive around him and eventually stopped until the tank man was pulled
away by someone else. Why the mainstream media never showed the full video to
the public? Because it contradicted with the brutal image of Chinese
government/military that they were trying to portrait to the public.
Propaganda is a funny thing. Bearing stereotype and ignorance, both side will
hold a strong belief that they are right.

I am by no means saying Chinese government is innocent. They pretty evil imo.
I am just trying to say is that it is very hard to figure out what really
happened now that both sides are extremely biased and ignorant towards the
other end. I personally believe there were students killed and injured during
the military intervention, but I am strongly skeptical against the massacre
claim as there was no solid evidence so far. The truth probably lies somewhere
in between the stories.

~~~
firstOrder
One thing people tend to forget is China lucked out in some ways by 9/11\. On
April 1st, 2001, less than three months after Bush became president, he sent a
US plane to the Chinese border, it rammed into a Chinese pilot's plane,
killing him, then landed on Chinese soil without permission. Then the US
government and press went crazy because the Chinese went in to inspect the
plane. Continual press reports about how "we can see with satellites them
looking at our plane and technology".

Luckily for the Chinese, all this warmongering ended five months later when
the guy who the US armed to overthrow Afghanistan's secular government crashed
into the Pentagon etc. because he opposed US bases on Saudi soil.

In all the mawkish tributes to the dead in the Pentagon and changed focus to
Afghanistan and the Middle East, the Chinese got about a decade's breathing
room from US imperialism. Of course the US is now redeploying to the
Philippines and so forth, so that is changing again.

~~~
mullingitover
> Luckily for the Chinese, all this warmongering ended five months later when
> the guy who the US armed to overthrow Afghanistan's secular government
> crashed into the Pentagon etc. because he opposed US bases on Saudi soil.

The best part of this whole story is that the day the infamous "MISSION
ACCOMPLISHED" photo was taken, the US was complying with the terrorists' key
demand and pulling all troops out of Saudi Arabia. Someone's mission was
definitely accomplished that day.

------
gone35
Important, timely read. Especially given that HN is currently not blocked in
China [1] --although that could change in any minute now.

[1]
[http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.yc...](http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2F)

------
hackuser
If there is a problem of awareness inside China due to censorship, then large
numbers of websites around the world posting something commemorating Tienanmen
Square on each anniversary -- if only a standardized graphic linking to more
information -- could make a difference.

Usually, actions such as signing an online petition or posing a graphic mean
little, but it could help solve this specific problem.

The participating websites wouldn't have to post much information; they only
need to prompt people to ask questions and find answers. If the Chinese
government blocked all the websites posting the commemoration, it would
attract more attention and legitimize the issue's importance (otherwise why
would the government make such an effort).

(It would be interesting to see which companies and people with business in
China would participate.)

------
wynemo
The Communist Party of China prohibits talking about Tiananmen(六四), they hope
that the public especially the young in China never know about this. Because
they also know it is not an honorable thing but a great sin.

------
pvdm
Thanks for the upload. I often wondered what really happened and this gets
closer to the truth. Western media might be downplaying the events of June 4,
1989 because it hits too close to home.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ePH-1B2-gc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ePH-1B2-gc)

~~~
altcognito
Isn't it great we can actually have a discussion about this, freely and
openly?

------
bonchibuji
Robin Munro wrote a pretty much detailed take in 2009.

[http://www.thenation.com/article/remembering-tiananmen-
squar...](http://www.thenation.com/article/remembering-tiananmen-
square?page=full)

~~~
Galaxity
This 2009 article you posted is actually the exact same piece as the 1990
article that the op posted, except with a few different opening paragraphs.

------
tuan5
this is not about it news at all.

~~~
lotsofmangos
Not everything is on here.

------
pjc50
(1990)

Not so much news, as history; but why this history, here, now? Yes, China is
not a politically free country and employs a substantial amount of violence to
keep things that way. So do a lot of places. There are more recent examples
from China if you care to look carefully for them.

~~~
RockyMcNuts
Because it's the 25th anniversary of these events... which a younger
generation, especially in China, may not be fully aware of.

~~~
davidw
It could be argued that this is very much "politics" and does not belong on
Hacker News, as per the guidelines.

