I saw a poster once in a weird shop in Berlin that had that picture with the phrase "Nothing is as strong as an idea" underneath it. I was out of euros at the time and to this day I regret not going back to buy it.
pretty dumb that people still make a big deal of it... i was in china at that time, people make mistakes, learn from it, move on... besides, the death toll is way over inflated... i'm sure there were agents from other country trying to stir up violence among students anyways...
Is this post serious? Make too big a deal out of govt. troops slaughtering unarmed peaceful protesters? I think we should commemorate their protest.
Wow... 18 years. I remember I had just finished my freshman year in college and had just returned to Houston from Cal. I remember going to the protest at the Chinese Counselate in Houston. Yeah that was a really dark day for modern China. As for learning from mistakes the people who should've learned from their mistakes was the PRC government. When the crackdown came the protest had largely ended and many of the students had gone home. All the government had to do was wait it out and give a few platitudes and things would've ended peacefully. For that matter the students were right about several things which the PRC has ended up dealing with like corruption. The PRC leadership could've embraced the movement as a sign of progress of China and adopted many of their calls and still left the CCP in power. It didn't have to turn out the way it did. As for the numbers being inflated they likely were but that doesn't change the fact that many people were killed and wounded. As for foreign agents that strikes me as paranoia along the lines of those in the US who claimed that Martin Luther King was a Communist agent and that the civil rights movement was infiltrated by Communists. There was a genuine discontent at the time among the Chinese students that didn't take foreigners to manufacture.
I am against killing unarmed civilians by the government, less extreme measures could have been used by the Chinese leaders. However, would the country have been better off if those students took over China? I doubt it.
the protest was put down in a needlessly ruthless manner, but... Are you protesting for democracy when the overwhelming majority doesn't want what you're protesting for? If the majority decides that what you want isn't what they want, who decides then that what you want is what the majority needs? If the will of the people is that they like the current situation, who are you to tell them likewise, to imply that you know better?
I htink they were looking for things that China had actually attempted before during the 100 Flowers Campaign (rough translation), which turned out very very badly.
Maybe I'm nuts, but I consider freedom of speech to be a basic human right. Those students should have a right to protest, no matter how radical that protest is.
i agree, they do have a right to protest. but what I'm asking about is the things they were protesting for
i'll tell you i'm admittedly quite ignorant of China's history. but i believe that people should have a right to voice displeasure about their government without the threat of being shot and killed.
It is a right for this country but freedom of speech has never been part of the Chinese culture. Hard for people to believe in this country, but when you are trying to feed people so they don't starve, freedom of speech is not on most people's top priorities. Unless you have gone through eating 4 ounces of meat per month and cannot buy enough rice to keep yourself full, you will have no idea how much people will support a government that can keep them well fed.
Add: I think as China get richer and more powerful, the idea of freedom of speech will become more important for the Chinese just like in this country, but it will take time.
oh i absolutely do agree. i think the entire thing was badly handled by the gov't. i'm just asking about the things the students were protesting for since most of the people of the country were probably more concerned about eating and being able to make a living than the right to protest. I think it goes back to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The students were obviously past the most basic needs and were protesting for a higher place on the pyramid while the majority of the people were still worrying aobut the bottom of the pyramid. I don't see the point of keeping the protesters in prison though. Just banish them or something and everyone can move on.
