Unfortunately, no. It's to prevent people from talking about the event on its anniversary, and to prevent Chinese people from hearing other people talk about it.
And it's also a veiled warning: "Don't even think about it". Read the comments below, though, for some discussion on the nuance in the situation, and why it's not really a subject anyone should be getting too outraged about before they understand the environment in which it's happening.
Do you think this US media talk about apathy and ignorance about June 4th among the Post-80's generation is meaningful? Do most Chinese youth really not know what happened? How many anniversaries do you think it will take before they stop maintaining the internet?
> Do you think this US media talk about apathy and ignorance about June 4th among the Post-80's generation is meaningful?
Yes to you, maybe no to us. Because it's not really some fresh ideas, since 'western' media is full of these things everyday.
> Do most Chinese youth really not know what happened?
on some degree. We all know some shit happened to China, East-Europe, Russia in the late 80's & early 90's. some of us probably do not know the tankman though.
yeah well, yes, no, sort of...this view of it being a cover-up of a horrific event is not exactly how the majority of Chinese view it IMHO. The Chinese certainly know why the Internet sites are down. The general population are not ignorant of this history.
Do you consider the U.S. Civil War a horrific event? Certainly lots of people suffered; it was a war. But lots of change occurred (still occurring).
I don't consider June 4th in China "as only" a slaughter of innocents. History might show it to be one of the least bloody events relative to the significant change that happened as a result. 2009 China is far different from 1989 in part because this event happened.
Please do not be upset with me for my opinions. My view has come after a very long time of me holding my U.S. views while living in China and coming to understand that most local Chinese do not agree with me.
Very good comment, similar to what I too have experienced.
Perhaps a better comparison to US history is the Kent State shootings, a protest in 1970 in which 4 people died at an anti-war protest. While awful, you would be hard pressed in 2009 to find an American hanging too much significance on the event; it was an isolated incident in a period of intense social change.
The situation, I think, is similar in China, whose own social upheaval is occurring at a far greater rate. It is difficult to think of any precedent, in fact, in which a country of such size and diversity has managed such a wrenching transition without a lot more bloodshed than that.
It's because of this, actually, that my position on the government there has softened, too. Chinese society sits on a powderkeg the likes of which it is difficult for westerners to understand. The govt's actions might seem heavy-handed, but their stewardship of the change process has undeniably been impressive, even exemplary.
And if you don't think the US Govt would temporarily pull the plug on a few websites in order to abate what they considered a genuine chance of widespread civil unrest, think again.
The govt's actions might seem heavy-handed, but their stewardship of the change process has undeniably been impressive, even exemplary.
I actually think the Chinese government did the right thing in Tiananmen. They had the fortitude to do what Louis the XVI and Czar Nicholas the II should have done, but did not. Americans forget that most revolutions have had horrible results. And in China in particular, the worst time periods have been times of internal chaos ( the Taiping Rebellion and the Cultural revolution). Order and security are prerequisites of liberty. The Chinese government put down the mob (a mob that did have weapons, btw), and helped ensure that the past twenty years have been the best twenty years in China in a long time.
What came to my mind (apart from the "smallpox seeding" and buffalo-killing that took down many indians) is the brutal put-down of Colorado mining strikers in the 1800s. All countries can point to such moments, I think (recent anniversary of French Communards comes to mind). The struggle towards freedom is never palatable to caring people.
2009 China is far different from 1989 in part because this event happened.
Do you think it's different because of the protests, or because of the reaction of the government, or both? I'd be very interested to hear any elaboration you have on how you think it changed China and what the current Chinese view of the incident is.
