Date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, with government using increasingly sophisticated tools to censor its discussion
There is no official death toll but activists believe hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed by China’s People’s Liberation Army in the streets around Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s central plaza, on 4 June 1989.
The date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, and the Chinese government employs extensive and increasingly sophisticated resources to censor any discussion or acknowledgment of it inside China. Internet censors scrub even the most obscure references to the date from online spaces, and activists in China are often put under increased surveillance or sent on enforced “holidays” away from Beijing.
New research from human rights workers has found that the sensitive date also sees heightened transnational repression of Chinese government critics overseas by the government and its proxies.
The most intriguing alt-history stuff I’ve read about it was that the protesters were “lefties” protesting the Dengist attempts at liberalization and confucianist reform, because in one of the videos the protesters were singing socialist anthems e.g. 1st international. It looked like the last gasp of the cultural revolution. But I’m not sure how to check any of this (certainly not from the Chinese archives and the rest of the world only has videos…and the cables you mention), it’s probably just another bullshit story to cover up what happened.
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oh, so because hundreds of people were killed in the streets just outside the square, that’s alright then, no need to mention it, let’s keep defending the authoritarian state, huh.
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the DW article does mention that most of the killings were on the streets outside the square.
you disingenuously cherry-picked your quote to imply there was no massacre at all.
with your demonstrated level of respect for human life, it’s entirely unsurprising that you admire authoritarian violent regimes.
It actually matters where people died because in the square there were unarmed student protesters and outside the square were armed workers battling it out with military which resulted in an almost even split in casualties between workers and military. A massacre entails armed people rounding up unarmed people and just straight up slaughtering people.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-42465516
"The Chinese army crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests killed at least 10,000 people, according to newly released UK documents.
The figure was given in a secret diplomatic cable from then British ambassador to China, Sir Alan Donald.
The original source was a friend of a member of China’s State Council, the envoy says.
Previous estimates of the deaths in the pro-democracy protests ranged from several hundred to more than 1,000."
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