June 4th remembered

Today marks another anniversary of the Tiananmen Incident which took place on June 4, 1989. It's already the 18th anniversary. People born in the year 1989 are now turning 18 years old and entering university. Most of them and many of their colleagues a few years older have probably never heard of the Tiananmen Incident or consider it to be a small footnote in China's contemporary history. The events are still very controversial in China. Apart from heightened security measures around the June 4 date, nothing is said about it in the press.

As I was in Beijing at the time, it's impossible to forget. On the other hand, continue to use the Tiananmen events to hit the current Chinese leaders over the head is also not nice. Yes, it would be better for the Chinese authorities to explain the truth of the matter, apologize, compensate the victims and move on. But as with the Cultural Revolution, it would open old wounds and lead to a discussion of controversial topics which could endanger the stability of the society so dear to the leaders.

Let's briefly recall what happened. Following the sudden death of Hu Yaobang, students started demonstrating against unresponsive university authorities and corruption. They wanted their voice to be heard by the government. In the early days of the movement, the authorities could easily have stopped the protests, but the leadership was divided. Once Deng Xiaoping labeled the movement a counter-revolutionary rebellion, there was no way back. Far from gaining the support of the people by thus labeling the movement, a wide cross-section of the Beijing population started supporting and sympathizing with the students. The leadership of the party itself was divided and thereby paralyzed until one side of the argument gained the upper hand.

Excessive force was used by the army, which lead to the deaths of many innocent protesters. How many is still a well-kept secret. The world was shocked and it took Deng three years (till 1992) to re-ignite China's economic development. According to the organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders, 13 Chinese are still imprisoned for actions related to the events. Some call them political prisoners, but they most probably committed acts of sabotage and destruction. You can't have it both ways: call those people political prisoners on the one hand and call the G8 protesters a bunch of hooligans if they burn a police car and sentence them to prison on the other hand.

Another legacy of June 4th is the E.U. arms embargo against China. It should be lifted, because it's nothing more than a stick to beat China. The country is not involved in any international conflicts and should be allowed to buy defensive arms. While the European countries are not selling arms to China, there is no embargo against the U.S., which is murdering the Iraqi people. On the other hand, if the Chinese government would honestly explain to its people and the world what happened on June 4, 1989 and the following days, foreign leaders who want to stigmatize China would have to look elsewhere for arguments.