Remembering Tiananmen Square

Thirty years ago today, the Chinese government covered itself in shame when it unleashed unprecedented violence on thousands of students and workers protesting at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. They were unarmed civilians, but that did not stop the People’s Liberation Army from mowing them down. Unknown numbers of youth were shot dead or flattened by tanks. Their ‘crime’ was that they were calling for greater accountability from their government. What started as mourning for a pro-reform Communist Party leader quickly transformed into mass demonstrations demanding greater political freedoms. This demand, and their refusal to vacate the Square despite the government’s orders, rattled Chinese leaders. On June 3-4, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party ordered the People’s Liberation Army to crackdown on the protesters. What followed was horrific violence. After Tiananmen Square was cleared of the protesters, PLA soldiers hunted down pro-democracy activists and executed them. Those who dared to question the official narrative of that incident were silenced.

In the 30 years since, China has changed dramatically. It is an economic powerhouse, a military heavyweight and a superpower-in-the-making. Its citizens are far more prosperous than ever before. Still, the Chinese State remains as insecure and as insensitive to the voices of its people as it was then. The events of 1989 continue to rattle the rulers. The approach of the anniversary prompted them to impose new restrictions on discussion of the events even on the internet. Thirty years after the bloodshed at Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government is yet to engage in soul-searching. It is yet to answer why the PLA needed to open fire on its own people. The government is yet to reveal what happened to thousands of youth who ‘disappeared’ in the purge that followed. It hasn’t provided a public accounting of what happened then.

The Chinese State’s relationship with the Chinese people continues to be marked by insecurity and suspicion. While surveillance has turned more sophisticated, thanks to technology, repression continues to be as crude as ever. In addition to altering the demography of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Tibetan Buddhist culture and identity have been wiped out systematically. In the restive Xinjiang region, almost a million Uighurs have been arbitrarily detained. Many are being held in so-called ‘re-education camps’. Politically-active Uighurs are being labelled terrorists, tortured and killed. In the context of Islamophobia sweeping the world, China’s persecution of the Uighurs, who are largely Muslim, has not evoked much international criticism. China’s global economic clout has won it the silence of the world. Thirty years ago, when China unleashed repression on its people, the world was outraged. Today, the international community is silent.