Tiananmen Square: Rarely seen video of the 1989 protests in China

 

In 1989, protests by students in Tiananmen Square changed the course of history — resulting in a massacre the Chinese government still denies today. Watch CNN’s coverage from on the ground that year. After the Chinese government pulled the plug on the broadcast, CNN reported by telephone and used video travelers snuck out of the country.

Liu Xiaobo – the almost forgotten hero of Tiananmen Square

 

Liu Xiaobo was a key figure of the Tiananmen uprising, and was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Yet few in China know his name, as the government continues to try to erase him from collective memory. Liu Xiaobo was a human rights hero and intellectual who kept watch at Tiananmen Square in 1989 to protect protestors from encroaching soldiers. In 2008 he wrote the Charter 08, a pro-democracy charter that led to his arrest. When he was awarded the Nobel peace Prize in 2010 while in prison, Liu Xiaobo became China’s Nelson Mandela or Václav Havel. Yet many Chinese do not know much about him.

Thousands in Hong Kong defy ban to hold Tiananmen Square vigil

Protesters in Hong Kong have defied a police ban to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown with a vigil, as the city’s legislature passed a law criminalising the mocking of China’s national anthem. Many fear this year’s commemoration might be Hong Kong’s last, as the proposed imposition of Chinese laws on the special administrative region would prevent and punish activities that threaten national security.

GOP Nationalism Shows George Orwell Is More Relevant Than Ever (video)

"As we confront a rise in nationalism, he reminds us nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism," CNN correspondent John Avlon said.

In John Avlon's Reality Check segment, he talked about why George Orwell is more relevant than ever.

"For a guy who has been dead for nearly 70 years, George Orwell has never been hotter. The sales of his dystopian novel 1984 surged to the after President Trump's inauguration. With alternative facts and fake news, Orwell raises his head again. 'The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final most essential command.' Sound familiar?

What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening.

The Tiananmen Square massacre as it happened, 25 years ago

It is a quarter of a century since the People's Army put down China's incipient protest movement with shocking brutality. Michael Fathers, The Independent's then Asia Editor, was there. These were his dispatches from the atrocity

Michael Fathers

It will go down It will go down in the annals of China's Communist Party as The Glorious Fourth of June when the army that was founded for the people turned on the unarmed citizens of Peking to destroy a peaceful student-led democracy movement.

The killing around Tiananmen Square started soon after midnight. It was a different army from the unarmed one which had tried to enter the square on Friday night and failed. This one was told to kill, and the soldiers with their AK- 47 automatic rifles and the armoured personnel carriers with their machine guns opened fire indiscriminately, in the air, directly at the huge crowds, at small groups, everywhere.

I looked behind as I walked along the pavement on the opposite side. A squad of army goons, waving pistols, electric cattle prods and batons were running towards me. They jumped me, screamed at me, pointed a pistol at my head, beat me about the legs with their batons and dragged me across to New China Gate. Several soldiers broke ranks and ran to me, punching me, kicking me with karate leaps in the back, thighs and chest. There was pure hatred in their eyes.

China Knows Censorship Over Tiananmen Square

With the 25 anniversary of the attacks on protesters in Tiananmen China is, as usual living in fear and paranoia.  So, what does the Communist Party do?




Foreign journalists in China harassed over Tiananmen Square anniversary

International journalists working in China have been facing increasing harassment and intimidation by the authorities in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the suppression of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

According to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC), it would appear that the communist party is determined to deter reporting on the massacre of demonstrators that occurred on 4-5 June 1989.

Foreign journalists and their local staffs have been summoned by public security officers to their offices to be given video-taped lectures dissuading them from reporting on the anniversary. Some reporters were warned of serious consequences should they disobey the authorities.

The Beijing-based organisation, which represents 122 news organisations from 29 countries, has catalogued several examples of harassment.

The tank man pictures: too 'sensitive' to report

A French broadcaster told of showing people on a Beijing street the iconic photo of the student who stood in front of a tank during the military crackdown on 5 June 1989 and attempting to interview them.

Within 10 minutes police showed up and ordered the French team into a police car and took them to police station. After an hour, public security officers arrived and interrogated them.

She said: "They separated us and questioned us for hours... The officer said, 'You were speaking about a sensitive topic. You know that the topic is sensitive and the government don't want people to speak about it.'

Wu'er Kaixi: The Chinese dissident can't get himself arrested

Wu'er Kaixi was one of the principle leaders of China's pro-democracy in 1989 that tried to bring democratic  reforms to China.  The protests ended in June of 1989 when then Primer Li Peng order the military into Tiananmen square killing an unknown number protesters.

 One would believe that being of China's most wanted people that Wu'er Kaixi could get himself arrested but you would be wrong.  He's tried 4 different times and hasn't succeeded.

As such, it is difficult to imagine why Wu’er, who lives in self-imposed exile in Taiwan, would ever want to return to a country whose government killed hundreds of his fellow pro-democracy demonstrators on that infamous day more than two decades ago.

That, however, is exactly what Wu’er wishes to do. Monday marks his fourth attempt to turn himself in and return to China – and the fourth time he was refused. This time, he had boarded a Cathay Pacific Airways flight from Taipei to Bangkok on Monday morning, using a stopover in Hong Kong to try to turn himself in to authorities, with the hope that he would be deported to China. The Hong Kong authorities put him straight back on a plane to Taiwan. 

Alongside Shen Tong, Chai Ling and Wang Dan, the most wanted of the 21 student leaders of the Tiananmen Square protests who was jailed twice for his actions, Wu’er Kaixi was one of the iconic faces of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movements. In May 1989, Wu’er met Li Peng, the Chinese premier who just weeks later ordered tanks to roll into Tiananmen Square to brutally quell the protests. Wu’er, who was on hunger strike at the time, wore a hospital gown during a live television interview in which he rebuked Li Peng in a remarkable sign of defiance.

“Li Peng sat down and gave us an endless monologue, he was saying sorry for being 20 minutes late, but the traffic was bad because the city was in chaos, implying that we should be responsible for the situation. So I interrupted him and said: ‘No, no, you weren’t 20 minutes late, you were a month late. We asked you to come on 19 April,’” Wu’er said of the incident years later.

This is how China remembers Tiananmen square 1989

Peking duck: The iconic 1989 'Tank Man' photograph of a civilian staring down a long row of military vehicles has been altered to show the vehicles replaced by rubber ducks. Searches for the image have been banned inside China, but the picture went viral on social media outside the country.

That picture should of course show this:

Chinese police blocked the gate of a cemetery holding the remains of victims of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on its 24th anniversary Tuesday, ahead of a vigil expected to see 150,000 people gather in Hong Kong.
Authorities launch a major push every June 4 to prevent discussion of the widely condemned bloody crackdown on prodemocracy protests. Hundreds, possibly thousands, are thought to have been killed in the violence.
Hong Kong and Macau both enjoy special privileges and are the only two cities in China where open commemorations are possible, and the large candlelit vigil in the former British colony is a rallying point for critics of Beijing’s influence.