Seems like they usually leave out the "also" because apparently two things can't be bad at the same time. Wouldn't it be great to live in a world where only one thing is bad? I expect it'd be simpler, at least.
Well, the citizens they killed were literally firing on them and killed around 150 soldiers. Meanwhile the military for the most part did not have guns. Not saying it is justified even then to use military force on striking workers, but a hell of a lot more justified than western media claims. Oh yeah, and literally no college students died that day, as well as nobody within a mile of Tianenmen Square.
From my conversations with mainland Chinese, they often tout the line that the US was somehow involved, so it was partly an excusable defense of the homeland against dangerously co-opted students. That said, most acknowledge that it was pretty bad. But these are also well-educated Chinese working abroad, so I assume the majority of Chinese don’t know much.
One story I heard retold by an English teacher working in Nanjing that I used to know was about the experience of one of the people involved in the protests…or at least they were an academic in Beijing at the time of the massacre. They were really depressed 20 years later and felt that nobody around them, particularly their students, knew anything.
The people I have spoken to in China understand something happened, and most of them know that it was the suppression of a student protest movement. From there the knowledge diverges as to what kind of protest movement and how violent was the suppression and whether it was justified. My family will kind of halfheartedly repeat some version of the party line but acknowledge it was a fucked up situation, and they also understand that the censorship surrounding it is awkward and unnecessary.
Generally the Chinese I have spoken to are mostly aware of and opposed to the CCP's censorship, but they also don't really like to talk about it for obvious reasons.
That young and foolish people around the world get easily manipulated by Western propaganda should be clear to anyone by now. If those dumb kids got their Amerika slums and ghettos they so wished with that immitation of the statue of liberty, they would understand. But by then, they would have no way of going back to socialism. This is what the government tried to do and since they lost narrative supremacy, they used force. For the good of everyone.
For those not around when that happened, i remember it this way, after 20 years of booze, weed & hookers:
The student protest was extremely peaceful and organized. There were student delegations that would report up to student representatives, educatio delegation, housing delegation, for example. The representatives were negotiating with Party people. It was unclear at the time if the Party people were indicative of the top brass. But there was a worldwide feeling something good and right might be changing in China. If I recall correctly this went on for weeks, so the implications were setting in.
Then it all changed when the Fire Nation attacked.
What the video & still represent is not 1 man facing a line of tanks. It a culmination of a generation of students frustrated enough but clever enough to find a way to negotiate a change and when the Army came in they knew they failed. The world knew they failed. The question was how badly that failure was. There were a few days when nothing happened after this video. Then it happened all at once. And the rest as they say is History -- repression, violence, killing, abductions, lost family members, and rewriting history.
Like the Velvet Revolutions of the Middle East, it was a short time of hope for a better future, for the students & for their nation.
That feeling stays & that feeling is what China wants their populace to forget - and you forget by meming this historic picture without context.
P.S I don't know if the man was ever found out, but I hope he stays anonymous.
Oh sick link, the first report is literally the Murderers' "Offical and True ;)" accounting of what happened.
It's genuinely entertaining to read (in a very dark way), how their words are so blatantly flowery and dictatorial, I can't believe that those CCP chucklefucks actually expected to be taken at their word lmao
Like who other than a troll or a moron would buy that report XD
You think the CPC writes the CIAs reports for them? What a weird take. I'm not sure which telegram you clicked on but since this is true for all the top results I'm fairly confident you read communication from the USA embassy to the USA secretary of state's office.
Your guess was as good as mine, he seem to hand the tanker groceries at one point, seems to gesture them to go back to the square, and has what looks like a full on convo with them.
Wowsers, I never knew the tanks were there as an honour guard to politely support the protestors. I suppose a lesser country would see sending tanks against the people as pure cowardice, but that time tanks were sent to show support to the people protesting against them! Very upright and cool!
Nothing happened on Tienanmen square, how naive are you all. The British ambassador inventer a tad too detailed horror stories, based on "trusted sources". In fact, the students protesting killed a PLA soldier but after a talk with the intervention force decided to clear square peacefully. The deaths happened elsewhere but we have almost no information about those. People protested against different things, some were for liberal freedom, some for more communism. We know what told us the Western "objective" press.
I wonder why an event that happened almost before I was born is so important to some people here. Why aren't we showcasing how monstrous Hitler was burning people for racism then? That's far more fitting to the situation of most western countries that are all leaning on fascism and racism. Some western countries like France are not far from crushing protestors with tanks btw.
But I guess the cold war world of 40 years ago is more comfortable. There was this nice black and white taint where capitalists were the good guys against evil communists. And we must now bring back all the sins of China and USSR to never forget what they did, so can be blind to what's happening now I guess.
People throwing "tankies" everywhere are worth no more than any Russian troll honestly.