Foundinchina.com

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“Only when the square is awash with blood will the people of China open their eyes. Only then will they really be united. But how can I explain this to my fellow students?”

“The students kept asking, ‘What should we do next? What can we accomplish?’ I feel so sad, because how can I tell them that what we are actually hoping for is bloodshed, for the moment when the Government has no choice but to brazenly butcher us?

http://www.jenzabar.net/

Prophetic, chilling words.

Those that looked to her for leadership at that time, those loyal followers that protected her from the authorities and plotted her escape to the west, must be feeling a little abandoned at this moment. Assuming, that is, they survived the punitive backlash in the months that followed.

I think they could accept Chai Ling’s willingness to move on or her viewing the student uprising differently with the benefit of two decades’ reflection, but adopting a sweep-it-under-the-carpet approach more reminiscent of the CCP has got to leave a bitter taste.

Worse still, Chai Ling’s betrayal of her ideals helps to paint a false picture of the Tiananmen ringleaders as self-serving individuals who placed personal ambition before the people’s needs. Fortunately, other prominent student leaders of the time speak more openly about 6/4, as in the excellent recent article by Isabel Hilton at The Observer (well worth a read).

And what of Phillip Cunningham’s forthcoming book Tiananmen Moon? Cunningham was right there, in the thick of it, and perhaps more so than any other foreigner in Beijing at that time, as evidenced by his interview with Chai Ling that foretold of the coming tragedy. He hasn’t always endeared himself to the Sino-blogging community, and his obvious friendship with CCTV’s unctuous Yang Rui is off-putting, but I fancy we can rely on him to deliver a well-balanced analysis from 20 years ago in Tiananmen Moon (excerpts can be read at chinabeat).

Well well! Whatever next? The king of martial arts mayhem has developed a latent tendency for brown-nosing by making some CCP-esque comments about freedom in China:

“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” Chan said. “I’m really confused now. If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic.”

Chan added: “I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”

Secretly, Chan has clearly always fancied himself as a tank driver. He’d have done a great job 20 years ago. 

Thankfully, those pesky, anarchic students in Hong Kong have got a different, less anally oriented message for China’s leaders: be accountable; do it now!

Students at a Hong Kong university have called for the Chinese government to be held accountable for events in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.

The booklet will now be made, after students from eight universities in Hong Kong criticised what they said were efforts to suppress freedom of speech.

Only 79 out of almost 2,000 students in the University of Hong Kong students’ union voted against the motion.

Correspondents say the result shows the continued strength of feeling about the killings in Tiananmen Square.

The university vote has garnered a lot of local media attention, especially during this sensitive period for Beijing in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen protests.

“We have had lots of discussion at the university and have realised there is a lot of diversity of views,” said Vincent Fok, council chairman in the students’ union.

He said Hong Kong students were more well-informed about the events than their counterparts from the mainland.

The union leader, Ayo Chan Yi-ngok, is under pressure after saying that some student leaders in the 1989 protest had acted irrationally.

At the City University, a plan to issue a booklet about the Tiananmen Square protests was initially quashed by students who said the 1989 events were of little relevance.

Gotta be proud of those HK students as the CCP net draws tighter around them.

On a related note People’s Daily (what a crappy name for a dictator’s mouthpiece) is censoring the names Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang. That’s what happens when a child’s mind controls the media.

Update

Predictably, there has been a backlash from people in Taiwan and Hong Kong (at whom Chan’s comments were directed) against Chan’s support for state repression. Silly bugger; I could have told him it’s a bad idea to upset your fan base. Need a new PR man, Jackie?

There’s a very intelligent discussion going on at cnreviews following Kai Pan’s article on this story. He is basically taking issue with the ‘western media take’ on Chan’s remarks. It’s well worth a read, as are the comments that follow, even if I can’t quite agree with his angle.