Tiananmen Square Is None of Your Business, Congress by Ron Paul Statement before the US House of Representatives, June 3, 2009 I rise to oppose this unnecessary and counter-productive resolution regarding the 20th anniversary of the incident in China’s Tiananmen Square. In addition to my concerns over the content of this legislation, I strongly object to the manner in which it was brought to the floor for a vote. While the resolution was being debated on the House floor, I instructed my staff to obtain a copy so that I could read it before the vote. My staff was told by no less than four relevant bodies within the House of Representatives that the text was not available for review and would not be available for another 24 hours. It is unacceptable for Members of the House of Representatives to be asked to vote on legislation that is not available for them to read! As to the substance of the resolution, I find it disturbing that the House is going out of its way to meddle in China’s domestic politics, which is none of our business, while ignoring the many pressing issues in our own country that definitely are our business. This resolution “calls on the People’s Republic of China to invite full and independent investigations into the Tiananmen Square crackdown, assisted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross…” Where do we get the authority for such a demand? I wonder how the US government would respond if China demanded that the United Nations conduct a full and independent investigation into the treatment of detainees at the US-operated Guantanamo facility? The resolution “calls on the legal authorities of People’s Republic of China to review immediately the cases of those still imprisoned for participating in the 1989 protests for compliance with internationally recognized standards of fairness and due process in judicial proceedings.” In light of US government’s extraordinary renditions of possibly hundreds of individuals into numerous secret prisons abroad where they are held indefinitely without charge or trial, one wonders what the rest of the world makes of such US demands. It is hard to exercise credible moral authority in the world when our motto toward foreign governments seems to be “do as we say, not as we do.” While we certainly do not condone government suppression of individual rights and liberties wherever they may occur, why are we not investigating these abuses closer to home and within our jurisdiction? It seems the House is not interested in investigating allegations that US government officials and employees approved and practiced torture against detainees. Where is the Congressional investigation of the US-operated “secret prisons” overseas? What about the administration’s assertion of the right to detain individuals indefinitely without trial? It may be easier to point out the abuses and shortcomings of governments overseas than to address government abuses here at home, but we have the constitutional obligation to exercise our oversight authority in such matters. I strongly believe that addressing these current issues would be a better use of our time than once again condemning China for an event that took place some 20 years ago. http://lewrockwell.com/paul/paul534.html
That's a laughable claim. They don't care because for the most part their lives have been pretty good. The pre-80's generation was one that grew out in an era when the country was near economic bankruptcy. The post-80's generation did not. When lives are good, people generally have fewer complaints. They also don't care because they are far less ideological and far more pragmatic than their predecessors. Part of which also had to do with the times, with the Deng generation kids far more pragmatic compared to the Mao generation kids. It would be good to have a little balance between the two generations. The post-80's care too little and pre-80's care too much. In other words, one don't give a **** while the other thinks they are hot **** (always right)... Only spinsters like you think being kept in the dark has anything to do with it.
No I didn't go to Beijing so I am not the person who can tell you what happened on June 4, 1989. In Shanghai where I lived, I found my alma mater's flag in waves of student demonstrators and marched with them for miles. The demonstration and stuff were pretty peaceful, as I don't even recall there were student hunger strikes in Shanghai. Still, it was quite chaotic out there. I remember my co-workers and I had to cancel our business trip to a nearby province because major parts of the transportation system were halted. Many messages of the student demonstration were resonating with the hoi polloi. Free press and political reform were some of top demands by the students, but looking back, lack of economic and personal freedom was the most important issue concerning virtually everybody. Over the years, my perspective has evolved/changed quite drastically. It's pretty clear the student demonstrators, who had never done anything in real lives, were unrealistically demanding too much from the government while making virtually no compromise of their own. Some of them, especially those camped in Beijing Tian'anmen Square, involuntarily became the forefront tools of the minority reformists in their political power struggle, while growing increasingly bodacious, radical and delusional, too eager to represent the "goddess of democracy" in China. **** was about to hit the fan, everybody knew that. Looking back, I think that notorious tank photo actually demonstrated the remarkable restraint from then government in dealing with the mob. PRC or not, no regimes in this world would put up with the disruptions of the government for lengthy period. Having said that, I don't think the current PRC government is doing a great job at all in closing this sad chapter. The tragedy of many lost lives, however inevitable given the circumstance, should be acknowledged openly and candidly. And at the minimum, victims' families should be compensated.
yeah, let's ignore the opinions from the Chinese who actually experienced those 2 months in China. Apparently, CNN, BBC, VOA are better sources for what happened in China.
How is that different? The Chinese government doesnt even acknowledge the event so naturally those growing up in school will have little to no exposure to the protest and consequently wont care. The point is, its a systematic effort by the Chinese government to simply pretend nothing happened. Call it what you want, but that's what has happened.
Kent State, Waco, the Truth in the Kennedy assassination. We're all sheep to the powers at be. Bahhhhhhhhh
It seems the Chinese are content to sacrifice liberty for affluence. Where is Patrick Henry when you need him? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Let's not gone too far here. The original requests were pure and legitimate: Anti-corruptions and anti-rotten ( 反貪汚,反腐敗 ), also regain and a fair appraisal of the contributions of Chief Secretary Hu YiaoBang ( 公正評價胡耀邦總書記的是非功過 ). Was there a political power struggle within CCP Party at that time? No doubt there was, when has political power struggle ever stopped within the reign parties over the past 5,000 years in our history? CCP was facing the most threat of their sovereignty since they took over Mainland China after WW2. Ironically, that was the same "trick" (by motivating grassroots to go into the streets and protests) and same slogans they have used to overthrow KMT. It was so familiar to those old revolutionists in Zhong Nan Hai ( 中南海 ). They knew the the consequences if they did not handle it well and that's why they feared most. The entire world knew what was going on there and they were watching how would the Beijing Govt. respond. Sadly, they chose the stupidest way. I have similiar feeling like you towards the tank photo but I cannot agree with your comments in the statement above: 1. The photo DID NOT demonstrate the restraint from then government. It demostrated the restraint from the soldier who drove the tank. Luckily we have human being in our PLA, it's just sad that we did not have enough. 2. Wang Wei Ling (or whatever the name of the Tank Man) was not a mob (or any part of it should I say since the word "mob" was more like a crowd?). Have you ever seen a rioter stayed in front of a line of moving tanks with a jacket and a plastic bag in hand?
The point: some stocks of sheep can choose to access alternatives to whatever the shepherd's been shoveling to them. And I would dare say you'd find mentions of Kent State & Koresh in any seventh-grade social studies text, taught in public schools. Despite it being absolute hogwash, you're also free to suffer under the collapse of the thousands of conspiracist books written about the third subject, all readily available at your local public library. (Although, sniff, Patriot Act, sniff...)
From personal experience, I don't remember nothing about Kent state, and I don't think anything in our AP tests ask about it. To the poster that said Chinese were trading liberties for affluence, think about the patriot act, we were more than happy to trade liberty for perceived safety. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xf1QcHs4vGY&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xf1QcHs4vGY&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> I grew up in the states and is a naturalized American. I freaking love the ACLU and actual think personal liberties are one of the most important things. But let's make sure our house is kept clean before criticizing others. P.S. Banning youtube and other information is the dumbest the PRC can do. They should learn to let the information out there then marginalize those with views different from the norm. Though I think have master the art of propaganda as shown how much people from mainland support the current regime (of course ridiculous economic growth helps also). Which makes it that much harder to understand how much they're sweating the small stuff. p.p.s. I embedded the Dead Prez's video not because that I necessarily agrees with that view, but merely pointing out that we might not be as unassailable as we think.
Actully we do care and we are not brainwashed. However, the government doesn't allow us to talk about it, even in the Internet. They would ban your sites and arrest you if you do. I got lucky cause I'm in Canada.
