5 Jun , 12 tweets, 8 min read Bookmark Save as PDF My Authors Yesterday was the anniversary of Tiananmen square massacre which happened in 1989 in Beijing, China. Many people don’t know about it. Ones who do, recognize it from the famous ‘Tank man’ photo. But there is a lot more. This thread has some graphic images. Exercise caution. My first exposure to this incident was due to a “System of a down” song. “Why don't you ask the kids at Tienanmen Square… Was fashion the reason why they were there?” Few years ago, I was in China for a while. Days were spent in the local cafe reading and chatting with people. One day we started talking about governments and systems as they were very curious about India. It turned into a light hearted banter on why democracy sucks to which I quipped, “Kids in Tiananmen square didn’t think so’. I was feeling smug at my pointed reply which came instantaneously and not the next day while taking a shower. But to my surprise, all I got was blank expressions. There were 5 people on the table and none of them knew anything about this massacre. Multiple protests had been breaking out against Chinese Communist Party due to corruption, bad economy and lack of freedoms which they labelled as “Bourgeois Liberalism” and quashed. Hu Yaobang was a reform minded leader who wanted CCP to change their ways and was expelled in 87. He died on 15th April 1989 and immediately became a martyr. This led to a huge protest on Tiananmen Square. Soon the number of protestors reached 1 million. These are the before and after images of Tiananmen square from 1988 and 1989 just for perspective. For weeks these protests were nothing but peaceful. Since Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev was visiting Beijing, the international press was also present. Students even erected a monument to Goddess of democracy. In many ways that was the last straw. On the night of June 3rd, army stormed the square. On the morning of June 4, they shot everybody who stood in their way and did not move. Govt. of course said these were necessary measures to neutralise the ‘Counterrevolutionaries’ Thousands were arrested, jailed and executed. Official figures say 241 people were killed and 7000 injured. British Ambassador to China, Sir Alan Donald, had written a secret cable which got declassified in 2017. According to that cable about 10,000 people were killed by CCP. These protestors were given a warning but that too was a lie. They were told they had an hour to clear but firing started within 5 minutes. People were run over by armoured vehicles & shot at will. What was left was disposed of. "Remains incinerated and then hosed down drains" When China wants Hongkongers not to keep a vigil in remembrance of Tiananmen square massacre, this is the reason. They do not want their own people to know. They want the world to forget. Question is, will we? • • •

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