Date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, with government using increasingly sophisticated tools to censor its discussion

Date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, with government using increasingly sophisticated tools to censor its discussion

There is no official death toll but activists believe hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed by China’s People’s Liberation Army in the streets around Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s central plaza, on 4 June 1989.

The date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, and the Chinese government employs extensive and increasingly sophisticated resources to censor any discussion or acknowledgment of it inside China. Internet censors scrub even the most obscure references to the date from online spaces, and activists in China are often put under increased surveillance or sent on enforced “holidays” away from Beijing.

New research from human rights workers has found that the sensitive date also sees heightened transnational repression of Chinese government critics overseas by the government and its proxies.

  • ErinCrush@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Oh yeah, it started as a peaceful protest against the government passing liberalization laws. Students led the protests, in support of Marxist-Leninist policies. The students eventually left after talking with the police.

    However, on the opposite side of the protest, US funded rebels began throwing rocks and attacking soldiers, taking their guns and shooting at police and innocents. They set trucks and tanks on fire. This group took advantage of a protest to try and jump start a very unpopular color revolution. The US media (the Wurlitzer) began to spin the protests as some sort of a mass execution, even though multiple eye witnesses describe the event differently.

    As for the tank man, he didn’t get hurt, he spoke to the tank operator, and walked away. He’s still alive today.