Awaiting a Democratic Hong Kong
A few news stories have noted that, unlike in 1989 and the death of Hu Yao Bang, this time, no mass protest will occur because of China’s economic growth has placated the masses. That is possibly true for a segment of the population, but unrest continues in China, as these following articles attest.
Struggles Explode Throughout China and For the Chinese masses, an increasingly short fuse.
So why will there not be the spontaneous out pouring of grief and anger which will gather momentum into a democratic protest in 2005? Because in 1989 my government came with tanks and shot at their own people. The impossible, unimaginable already happened, and the CCP has made a statement that unrest will be met with the utmost violence response. We all now know that the 1989 movement was characterized by the student’s, worker’s and our own naivety and youth. More than 15 years later, we are more than aware government will not allow dissent on the mainland.
Only those who want to sacrifice themselves will at this moment protest in such a public manner. And not many do, and probably not advised. I for one would love to go Beijing and stand in Tiananmen with a placard that asks for a free and democratic China, but I (and many others) value our lives. There will be no mass protest, not because every Chinese person is willing to accept the supreme oppression of the Communist government, but because we understand, we are powerless.
It’s true that in 1989, the CCP did the “correct” thing in cracking down the protest in such a memorable and violent manner. It will help them contain public dissent on the mass scale for years to come, until the generations who no longer remember the bloody crack down on June 4th 1989 become mobilized. But then, it’s also possible a better and different China exists….
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Tiananmen security tightened
From correspondents in Beijing
January 19, 2005
news.com.au
SECURITY has been stepped up in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square as a
precaution against demonstrations taking place after the death of
deposed Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, who opposed a brutal crackdown on
1989 democracy protests in the square.
Plainclothes security forces yesterday stopped Bao Tong, a former Zhao
aide, from leaving his home to pay respects. They also allegedly
knocked down Mr Bao’s wife.
Police were checking identification papers of visitors in Tiananmen Square, the site of the protests 15 years ago.
Zhao died on Monday, aged 85, after years of virtual house
arrest. He was seriously ill in hospital for a month with a lung
problem.
Zhao spent nearly 16 years under house arrest after being
sacked and disgraced for opposing the bloody crackdown in which
hundreds, possibly thousands, of unarmed protesters and citizens were
killed in an army assault.
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 