Keeping Tight Lid On Dissent

In the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests in the spring of 1989 the Chinese government began a concreted effort to reign in the momentary freedoms unleashed upon the country much like the Prague Spring of 1968 which was crushed by an invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Red Army. While those protests were a pivotal moment in modern Chinese history no person born since has any knowledge of that tumultuous period because history text books published from then forward make no mention of the protests are the actions taken by the Chinese government. PBS America’s public broadcaster aired a Frontline documentary on the twentieth anniversary of Tiananmen Square during one segment they showed a group of school children a picture of the Tank Man one of the most iconic pictures ever taken yet they had no idea what that picture represented or that it had been taken in Beijing.


Repression of dissent or ideas isn’t limited to the more simplistic forms of communication but extends to mobile phones and the internet specifically through the Great Firewall and the thousands of government minders who monitor China’s vast number of internet users. Upon awarding the China the 2008 Olympic Games one of the conditions set forth by the IOC was that continued suppression of the press be stopped and the that ability of the foreign media openly report on events in China not be inhibited. Given the governments paranoia concerning such freedoms they never materialized and the IOC never complained.

China’s Communist party has always been wary of its population if not simply afraid of them because of their huge numbers, diverse cultures and a large groups minorities which nether speak or are Chinese. Especially the Tibetans and the Uighur’s nor have a shared history. As the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East the ruling Communist party is becoming more alarmed than ever about its restive population and whether they will seek to immolate the actions taken by those thousands of miles away.

China on Tuesday defended detention of some foreign journalists covering the thwarted demonstrations for a repeat of Jasmine Revolution in Beijing on Sunday.
It said they had not followed necessary procedures for covering the proposed protests at a busy Beijing shopping street. “The Beijing police properly handled the incident,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.


The spokeswoman asked a Bloomberg correspondent, who was severely hit in the face, if he had the permission from the local administration before doing interviews at the place.
Jiang said there is no change in China’s policy on press freedom, which was liberalised before the 2008 Olympic Games. “Some journalists did not follow relevant procedures. China protects foreign journalists’ lawful rights within the law,” she said in a sattement on Tuesday.

.