I don’t know if I mentioned when I was in China how little the Chinese knew/cared about the Tiananmen Massacre, or “Liuyue sihao”, meaning June 4, as it’s called in Chinese. I’m not even sure Americans know enough about it. You guys realize almost 3000 people were killed, many in cold blood, by their own government? That the Chinese army was on the verge of Civil War? That people were being shot in the street even a week later?And even more amazing is what happened the week before 6/4. Hundreds of thousands of students, using the death of a minor politician named Hu Yaobang to clamor for increased democratic freedom, filed into Tiananmen Square. They camped their for weeks, ignored by the government, and set up “The Goddess of Democracy,” a statue that faced down the Mao portrait at the opposite end of the Square. After the students’ protests overshadowed the state visit of Gorbachev to Beijing, the Chinese leaders agreed to meet the student leaders on live TV. Wu’er Kaixi and other student leaders told off the government hardliners (especially Premier Li Peng and Chairman Deng Xiaopeng).

Democracy-supporting moderates like Zhao Ziyang were outmuscled by the hardliners, and the government decided to bring in the army to restore order, calling the students “revolutionary thugs.” At this, millions of ordinary Chinese joined the students, with old ladies lying in front of tanks, soldiers throwing down their weapons, and state journalists refusing to write and publish propaganda. Only when the government brought in hardened troops from the provinces did shit go down.

Watch this short video at Google Video about the Massacre. It’s nuts - these kids were our age. I’ve never been closer to losing it then after seeing the benchmark 6/4 documentary, PBS’ “The Gate of Heavenly Peace”, which was made even better because we watched it in Beijing where it’s officially banned.

Lastly, read activist Wang Guangmei’s “The Fifth Modernization” and the story behind his call for Chinese democracy. “When people ask for democracy, they are only asking for what is rightfully theirs.”