

China Snuffs Out Discussion of Tiananmen - kulims
http://kahimyang.info/kauswagan/history_current_events/1549-china_snuffs_out_discussion_of_tiananmen

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masonhensley
It is amazing the lengths the PRC takes to cover up this issue[1]. You would
think at some point the party would disavow the actions of their predecessors
or try and marginalize connections to the past event rather than keep sweeping
it under the rug.

Next year will be the 25th anniversary, that will be interesting.

[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-censors-block-big-
yel...](http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-censors-block-big-yellow-
duck-2013-6)

~~~
darkarmani
But it is working so "well!" Is this a cultural mechanism or just the poor way
that the PRC handles it?

~~~
ajross
Sustained double-digit growth rates work very well as an unrest suppresion
device. Seriously: the Chinese people are simply too busy being _vastly
wealthier than their parents_ to notice their lack of personal freedoms or
representation in government.

It's sad, but true. But it will correct itself eventually, hopefully with less
bloodshed this time.

~~~
sageikosa
Parts of the Chinese nation are too busy being vastly wealthier than their
parents. China has a decent-sized first and comparatively large second world
economy embedded in the world's largest third-world economy.

~~~
ajross
This is true, but the third world economy is not the one that tends to revolt.
Tiananmen was driven by students. And that demographic has been effectively
pacified by the fantastic urban growth China has experienced over the last two
decades.

~~~
sageikosa
Putting aside the reasons the third-world economy doesn't revolt or isn't seen
actively revolting (being too busy trying to survive, having to deal with
local officials and police that are part of the Confucian machinery, not
having any significant outbound information channels in their geographic area,
etc), the demographic of "student" is a constantly shifting one, and one that
has been blocked from learning _anything_ about Tienanmen for a quarter of a
century. It is hard to form concepts about something that has been so
effectively and actively suppressed, right to the level of the Great Firewall.

By contrast, we can still talk about the various Occupy movements (some of
which continue to smolder in various corners of urban centers), just most
people don't really care that much, the street theater got stale; that sort of
effect is real, and could conceivably contribute to a nonchalant attitude in
China towards Tienanmen today, but we won't know, because the Party has
decided that everyone must not care by keeping anyone from trying to learn
about it.

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narcissus
A few years ago I read that censorship around Tiananmen was becoming harder in
places such as newspaper classifieds (not sure if this is the term used in
North America, at least?) because the staff taking the calls for these ads
were less likely to know what it was referencing.

That is to say, it was becoming easier to make a veiled reference to the event
because the person doing up the ad didn't know that it happened, and so can't
really censor anything that, I guess, isn't already on their 'censor radar'.

Like I say, it was something I read once and I have no link available.
Interesting nonetheless (even if it isn't true).

~~~
afreak
The term "newspaper classified" has been replaced by "Craigslist".

~~~
67726e
Most newspapers still have classified sections. The term hasn't been replaced,
it's just more common for people to use Craigslist (at least among younger
people) than to use newspaper classifieds.

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ximeng
[http://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1253135/chinese-
ev...](http://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1253135/chinese-evade-online-
censors-remember-tiananmen)

Article from the South China Morning Post on how people are commenting on this
discretely.

The TV screenshot at timestamp 12:07 has a seemingly innocuous vox populi
question, however the first character of the four options A, B, C, and D gives
毋忘六四 - don't forget 6-4 [Tiananmen Square incident].

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yaix
It always amazes me how we like to talk about Tiananmen, but never ever
mention Tlatelolco ( <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlatelolco_massacre> ).

Maybe, because a week after the massacre, and only 2 km away, we happily
inaugurated the Olympic Games.

And not one Western country even got upset about what happened. After all, the
Mexican one-party-state of the time were one of "our bastards".

(The same party that governs Mexico today).

~~~
caseysoftware
I'm absolutely not downplaying what happened in Tlatelolco but I'd wager that
_in addition_ to the Olympics aspects, there are other things at play:

October 1968 was the height of the Vietnam War and a US Presidential election
was less than a month away, US (and much of the world's) news coverage would
have been focused on those. The Soviet Union was still the big ugly monster in
the room which means most world history classes focused on that period would
talk Cold War and detente.

On the other hand, June 1989 was a time of _relative_ peace in the western
world. The Soviet Union was around but waning as the Berlin Wall would fall
just months later.. which makes Tiananmen stand out that much more.

I think _most_ importantly is that cable news and the 24 hour news cycle had
been born in the interim. It meant that we saw footage from Tiananmen Square
practically as it was happening.

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peto123
Here is also a good round-up of the Tiananmen '89 at Epoch Times:
<http://epochtim.es/s9Nz>

What I didn't know is that according to the Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng,
the "Tank Man" life ended that day, when he ran out in front of another column
of tanks from a different unit, which didn't stop and smashed him...Wei got
this information from his former classmate, who was a commander of that tank
column on the iconic photo.

------
o0-0o
Just like they snuffed out those students? Commie cowards.

~~~
cobrausn
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings>

Not to be that guy (everything bad said about someone else must be followed up
with something bad about yourself), but we have our shameful moments also. At
least we let you talk about it, though.

EDIT:

Thanks for the replies. For some strange reason, I actually thought that the
Tiananmen square was a low casualty count incident - I didn't actually realize
the full extent of it. Pretty fucking horrible, actually. No wonder they don't
like to let you talk about it.

~~~
vilhelm_s
I feel the Kent State shootings give some kind of scale to the event. There,
four people were killed, and we still listen to the Neil Young song about it.
It's hard to imagine what hundreds or thousands of deaths (Wikipedia) would
feel like.

~~~
fennecfoxen
Well, we _do_ have hundreds-of-unexpected-deaths events in recent memory (Sep.
11 2001 ~= 3000) though, conspiracy theory notwithstanding, that's not our own
government doing it. Also, there were fires and explosions and billions in
property damage and clouds of toxic smoke.

Oddly enough, I can't actually name any songs about the event off the top of
my head, though.

~~~
ISL
Here's a few:

Alan Jackson - "Where were you when the world stopped turning"
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvj6zdWLUuk>

Pete Schmidt - Lost in New York

Darryl Worley - Have you forgotten <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6yLQRF-
cEU>

Springsteen - The Rising (lower link includes plane impact footage)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNnB4dkVRJI>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmSllqr6Qzs>

