I recall the horrible news that morning. While the US was sleeping, the Chinese Army and its hardliner masters decided they had had enough of the ongoing student protests, especially when the workers were joining in. Like all tyrannical regimes, they slaughtered their own citizens to “restore order.” How many? Estimates vary but given China’s opaque nature, we may never get an accurate number for at least another generation. Currently, survivors and experts put it in the thousands since the soldiers weren’t too particular about who they killed.
Of course there were the usual empty threats and criticisms from America, Europe and their allies. Western politicians just used rhetoric to appease the people at home, namely the batshit, hard right. They never took any substantive action because the West was busy getting into bed with the Chinese in exchange for “open markets.” When Clinton let the murderous Chinese government into WTO, the perpetrators knew they had won. NeoLiberal dupes stupidly believed in and/or proselytized the lie claiming how China embracing Capitalist economics would lead to the Communist government becoming more democratic.
Today, I would say the opposite is happening. China may be the second largest economy and will be the largest by the end of my lifetime yet Democracy is a sick joke, both here and in China. The current despot…I mean president had the two-term limit removed, they’re re-educating the ethnic Uighurs by the thousands in camps reminiscent of Stalin’s rule and we know all their tech is infected with spyware. On the last thing, Western corporations went ahead and let Huawei happen because their greedy idiocy trumped caution or re-investing in their real customers. What’s thousands of people slaughtered to get in the way of having access to a billion Wal-Mart shoppers? Did I forget to mention their utter disregard of copyrights, patents and trademarks?
Any reference to these events 30 years ago leads to arrest, expulsion or their sick rationalization on how the people accepted the grand bargain this resulted in. The State would finally let the citizenry have material crap like the West has in return for their unquestioning obedience…if they’d just forget this little dust up.
I know I never did and never will, unlike Third Way Democrats and most Republicans. It’s why we need to diversify our investments and get on a track with leading the world by setting a better example. Otherwise, Tiananmen Square Massacres are going to be the new normal thanks Oligarchy, Right-Wing Teabagger uprisings, Brexit madness and other Nationalist movements.