I was hanging out with some friends from Hongkong and Guangzhou at the time the news reached us. Only a few days before, kids were flying kites in Tiananmen in Beijing and there was happy talk about a new political openness in China. All of a sudden students around me were bursting into tears and shoving Chinese newspapers in my face. I could not read a word and felt secretly ashamed. These students were sick with fear and didn't know if they could ever go home! There was so much uncertainty.
Famous picture of a naive kid standing in front of tanks.The following days I was glued to the radio at the office where I was doing my apprenticeship. There was news about tank battles between various army units on the outskirts of Beijing. China seemed to be on the verge of breaking up!
I had sided with the "pro-democracy" students naturally. After all, who doesn't want to fight corruption, implement constitutional rights, etc etc etc? But what did we expect the Chinese government to do? Hand over power to the students? A collapse of law and order would have led to chaos, with regional warlords grabbing power, distribution networks breaking down and thousands dying from starvation or violence. And the neo-colonial vultures would be swooping in to tear China into little controllable chunks.
Injured soldiers or policemen. [chinatoday.com]Look at China today. After years of trying to "improve" China's behaviour, the West has gone bankrupt while China is on top of the world. What a unexpected turn of fortune. Even the USSR has disintegrated. Goes to show that China's decision to move cautiously has been right all along.
Tiananmen today. [chinasmack.com]
Olympic fireworks over TAM. [en.beijing2008.cn]
Bravo, China!
