It’s 34 years since the tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square squashing the demonstrators and their dreams and the world watched in horror.
I remember it well -- this household remembers it well -- being there, in Beijing, and all.
Steve FitzGerald and I organised a memorial at Parliament House in Canberra, with the late Prime Minister Bob Hawke speaking, and crying for the dead students, a famous clip — of his nose running, as he wept.
I was kind of forced into chairing a “China Support Group” which worked on getting students out of China, a kind of Underground Railroad, until I concluded it was turning into a bit of a scam and I quit, while Jing was in Beijing, on her bicycle, a young graduate, who met the Tank Man on a side street south of Dong Dan, walking home, bag in hand, disconsolately.
We remember. But young Chinese don’t. By “young” I mean anyone under 40 They don’t remember because they don’t know. And they don’t know because news of Tiananmen 1989 has been systematically repressed. Under 40: That’s most of China. And here, soon, people will forget. Because they won’t know. Anyone thinking censorship doesn’t work, this is the classic counter.
Cliff Buddle writes about the June 4 red lines, in his weekly piece today. He says people won’t forget. Dear, dear sweet, naive Cliff: we won’t be seeing any clear red lines anytime soon — you gotta keep that scary ambiguity. And people will forget. Just not we and thee.
