Lessons from Tiananmen

Many unarmed Chinese citizens were killed by People's Liberation Army troops on June 4, 1989, not only in the vicinity of Tiananmen Square, but in cities all over China. Most were not students, who started the peaceful demonstrations against corruption and autocracy, but ordinary workers, the sort of people a Communist Party ought to be standing up for.

Young people don't know, because most parents have shut up about it, lest they get themselves and their children in trouble, and because the subject is never mentioned in the official Chinese media; it is a taboo. Websites mentioning the events of 1989 are closed down. Emails are intercepted. People who still insist on talking about it in public are frequently arrested.