It was 30 years ago
today that protests in China came to a bloody end. What came to be known as the
“Tiananmen
Square protests of 1989” started in April when Communist Party General
Secretary, Hu Yaobang died. He was a liberal reformer, and his passing sparked
demonstrations and protests. At the height of the protests, about a million
people assembled in the Square. They requested government accountability,
freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the restoration of workers'
control over industry
The government tried a
conciliatory stance at first, and protests spread to 400 cities by mid-May. But
the government, led by Deng Xiaoping, got tired of talking and decided to use
brutal force, sending in tanks and soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army. Of
course, we don’t know exactly how many people were murdered by their own
government, either in the actual fighting or later by being “disappeared,” but
estimates range from a few hundred to several thousand. June 4th was
the official, bloody, end.
Now, today, students are held in ignorance. According to National Review,
This week, China will diverge from the rest of the world as if it resides in an alternate universe. While outside of China the world will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre that took place on June 4th, 1989, inside the country President Xi Jinping’s regime will continue its campaign of silence: not acknowledging the massacre ever took place; not apologizing to victims and their families; strongly condemning any commemorative activities outside China; and deploying its massive cyber-security force to vigorously scrub any mention of the incident from the domestic Internet.
The censorship will be so thorough that Chinese people won’t even be able to send a text message that contains any one of the numbers eight, nine, six, and four. Such a campaign of silence has been going on for 30 years, and as technology has improved, the Chinese government has only gotten better at suppressing dissent.
This week, China will diverge from the rest of the world as if it resides in an alternate universe. While outside of China the world will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre that took place on June 4th, 1989, inside the country President Xi Jinping’s regime will continue its campaign of silence: not acknowledging the massacre ever took place; not apologizing to victims and their families; strongly condemning any commemorative activities outside China; and deploying its massive cyber-security force to vigorously scrub any mention of the incident from the domestic Internet.
The censorship will be so thorough that Chinese people won’t even be able to send a text message that contains any one of the numbers eight, nine, six, and four. Such a campaign of silence has been going on for 30 years, and as technology has improved, the Chinese government has only gotten better at suppressing dissent.
But I couldn’t let
this anniversary pass by without comment. To anyone who’ll has access to this
and who’ll listen, I’ll proclaim this from this blog, adding my voice to a lot
of other (much braver) ones:
This is not forgotten. The Chinese government desperately wants
to pretend this never happened, and they’ll take any necessary measures to
silence those who’d call us to remembrance, but what happened is not forgotten.
The entire world might forget, but
there is One who never will. He sees all. He knows all. He remembers all. The
dissident who’s languishing in a prison cell, awaiting a final bullet, is known
by him. . .by name. Each and every one. One
day the books will be opened, and each one not covered by the blood of
Christ will get exactly what he or
she deserves.
To all my Chinese siblings in Christ, I want to let you know something
as well. The One who notices
when a sparrow falls sees what you’re going through. And one day, he will make
all things right. You’re not forgotten by your Father, and you’re not forgotten
by me. Just wanted you to know.
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