Tiananmen Square (4): The 1989 Protests and Massacre

Let's not leave Tiananmen Square without paying respects to the thousands of people who protested and died here in 1989.  Like many things in China, information about this event is censored.  They do not teach it in the schools so, much like the memory of the American internment of the Japanese-Americans in the US during WWII (which my family experienced), which was  swept under the rug, there is fear that future generations will not be aware of this important event in history.  

I remember this event and the world-wide news coverage playing on television and my very politically aware friends in outrage.  Although I was young and couldn't understand the full details of the event there were several things that stuck in my memory.  The fact that these were the people of China standing up to their own government.  A government that chose to fire openly onto crowds of unarmed civilians.  News cameras showed ambulances blocked from entering the are to help the injured and a few of the ambulance drivers were also shot by the government. Of the many people killed or injured that day many were innocent bystanders, not even involved in the protests, which you can see in this BBC video from 1989. Probably the most memorable image from this time was a man they called "Tank Man".  News cameras documented him standing alone in front of rows of tanks preparing to roll into Tianamen Square. 

(Photo by Jeff Widener)

The Chinese government does not acknowledge whether this man was killed either at the scene or as punishment for his offenses, nor do they confirm the exact amount of people killed.  The record from the Chinese Government listed 241 dead and 7,000 wounded, while their own Chinese Red Cross listed 2,600 dead by the next morning.  NATO listed 7,000 dead and the Soviet Union claimed 10,000 were killed.  Despite the discrepancies in the head count, the fact remains it was a cruel and unnecessary tragedy.  Tiananmen Square contains many important landmarks, has been host to numerous important historical events and is sure to be the the center of many more to come, but hopefully none that end in this kind of tragedy. You can read more about the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre here.