In 1989, 100,000 students and workers challenged the Chinese Communist Party and government demanding freedom, democracy and human rights. On June 4th, the authorities cracked down ruthlessly on the protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Troops and police swept the square clear, opening fire on crowds of unarmed people.
The crackdown against the democracy movement continued for weeks. While there has never been an accurate accounting of casualties, as many as 2,500 people were killed and thousands more injured. Leaders were jailed or fled into exile.Today, Chinese police swarmed the square to block anyone bold enough to commemorate the event and barred journalists as well.
On this 20th anniversary of the crackdown, the state of human rights in China is neatly summarized by this Orwellian order by local Communist authorities in one town about how to deal with potential troublemakers, as reported by Agence France-Presse:
“Village cadres must visit main persons of interest and place them under thought supervision and control.”
What are your thoughts about Tiananmen? Post a comment.
Horrendous! Who gives one human supreme authority over other humans' thoughts and actions? It is arrogant, disturbing and demented that so many psychotics dictate the thoughts and action of others.
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