Zhongnanhai

It’s been a big week here.  Besides moving from Shanghai to Beijing (and I am still seeking suitable living quarters in Beijing), trying to blog, Huang Ju’s death, and the passing of the June 4th anniversary, lots has been happening.

Fortunately one of my columns this week was picked up by Canada’s Toronto-based national newspaper, the National Post.  I was subsequently called to be a guest on Adler Online, a nationally-syndicated radio program. Yes, despite everything that’s going on in China, the Tiananmen Square crackdown (or massacre, if you prefer — see Imagethief for an excellent post on this) remains one of the most compelling stories for foreign audiences.

I hope to post the audio from the interview here shortly, but for the time being you can find it here.  Click "Mon June 4" and "2:00pm" and then fast forward to about 2:45. They have a nice intro complete with broadcast news snippets from June 4, 1989.

The article I’ve posted below, and my radio interview, largely deals with the lack of attention (obviously) paid to the June 4 anniversary.  It’s remembered by those who lived in Beijing, and discussed by the older generation in the provinces.  But thanks to strong and centrally-controlled media, many in the younger generation have no idea what happend.  Here is proof. 

In the meantime, I have posted the National Post column below.

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Chinese amnesia; Today is the 18th anniversary of Tiananmen. But few in China know –or care
National Post
Monday, June 4, 2007
Page: A12
Section: Editorials
Byline: Cam MacMurchy
Dateline: BEIJING
Source: National Post

BEIJING - Today is a major anniversary in Chinese history — but you wouldn’t know it from the country’s media. In fact, China’s Communist rulers go to great pains to make sure no one publicly mentions what June 4, 2007 represents: the 18th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

At least that’s what the West calls the event. In China, it’s simply known as "June 4th." On the 15th anniversary, in 2004, a large sign on the front door of state-run China Radio International informed staff not to mention the date, and all programs were pre-recorded for the entire week lest anybody slip-up.

The seeds of the massacre were sown when the Communist Party declared martial law on May 20, 1989, after a month of protests and hunger strikes by hundreds of thousands of students calling for improved economic conditions, a crackdown on corruption and democracy. The tanks rolled into the outskirts of Beijing, where they sat until June 3, when then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping gave the orders to clear the Square "at all cost." The tanks began heading through the streets of the capital after sunset.

What happened that night is hard for me to imagine, though I’ve lived in Beijing for nearly two years. Tanks rumbled through neighbourhoods such as Muxidi, which I used to pass daily on my way to work, and Dongzhimen, where many of the city’s best eateries are located. The troops met fierce resistance, as citizens clamoured onto overpasses and hurled rocks at their countrymen. The army responded by firing into the crowd, and even into people’s homes.

That night, the city burned. Estimates of the number of people who died vary from a few hundred to several thousand. No clear number has ever emerged, partly because the Communist Party still denies what happened. To this day, the event, in official terms, is dubbed: "The counterrevolutionary riot."

I went down to the square late at night on June 3 a few years ago to mark the anniversary. The lights that normally lit the revolutionary statue and Mao’s famous portrait were turned off, and the middle of the square was closed. It was crawling with plain-clothes police, some of whom were flying kites — in the dead of night. Police cars with lights flashing were doing laps around the square, looking for the first sign of anything suspicious, such as somebody laying flowers to remember those who died.

This campaign of official amnesia is working: Many in the younger generation have no idea what happened 18 years ago. I had a local friend visit me the other day, a woman who was seven years old in 1989. I asked her about the event, and she said, "Nobody ever told me what happened. I just know it was bad."

I brought her to the computer, clicked on Google and searched for images of "Tiananmen Square." Dozens of photos popped up — including images of that famous unnamed man, standing defiantly along Chang’an Avenue in front of a tank. She had never seen the photo.

I proceeded to give her a brief description of what happened. She had no idea of the carnage in her own hometown.

The event is slowly being forgotten in China as people clamour to make money, live in luxurious apartments, and buy BMWs and Prada handbags. The Communist Party opened fire on its own young, and the bloody offensive seems to have paid off.

Even foreign governments, which initially imposed sanctions on China following the massacre, long ago moved on. They now trip over themselves to please China’s Communist emperors and tap into the country’s massive market.

An English-language Web forum was launched two years ago in China. Surprisingly, it allows a great deal of free debate. Included among the permitted topics is Tibetan Independence, the status of Taiwan and relations with Japan –all hot-button issues in China. But discussing June 4 remains forbidden.

Despite this, ghosts of the event still haunt the country and foreign news pages. Yu Dongyue, now 40, was released in February last year after spending 17 years in prison for throwing ink at Mao’s looming portrait during the protest. He was tortured for his crime, and his father said he’s unable to properly communicate with his family.

And leading up to last year’s anniversary, a group of mothers of Tiananmen Square victims again asked the government to review its official position on June 4 and remember those who died. The mothers, and the rest of the world, may be waiting a long time for satisfaction.