1989 was a time before we became desensitised to seeing death and brutality on our news programmes but the massacre in China's Tiananmen Square 18 years ago today was an event of horrific proportions.
The image of the man grasping a flag and standing defiantly in front of the Chinese tank stands as one of the most iconic images of our times.
I clearly remember watching in horror as the scene on the television unfolded with demonstrators falling over the bodies of the dead as they fled the slaughter of unarmed civilians shot dead by a brutal regime that sent its tanks rumbling through the capital's streets and the army moved into the square randomly firing on peaceful protesters.
The ferocity of the attack which killed thousands, rightly bought condemnation from around the world as the Chinese government carried out widespread arrests to suppress further protests and banned the foreign press from the country.
Deng Xiaoping may be dead and buried and China has undergone a Public Relations exercise of late but it still remains an authoritative and brutal regime.
The crying shame is that the Tiananmen Square massacre was not the last time that I have sat in silence as the camera showed images of innocent dead civilians created by other Governments around the World.
7 comments:
"rightly bought condemnation from around the world "
Well, actually, we kept them on as a "Most Favored Nation" trading partner, but we did give them a "Tsk tsk" and wrote a very strong letter to Deng Xiaoping's mother.
My wife has a new student from China who was born in 1990. Tiananmen Square came up in a discussion and she turned to him for some input. He knew the location, but said he'd never heard of the massacre until then.
The horror has never stopped there, just the rate of it has let up some.
I heard Deng Xiaping's mum made him go without sweets for a week because of that letter.
That's just stunning o'tim.
Sacremento - So true but as China is the growing world power (apparently), our criticism of the brutal government there has strangely become less fierce.
SacrAmento. Or, if you prefer the colloquial, Sackamenna.
:o)>
I have been spelling that wrongly ever since i heard of the name.
That's because you ain't Catholic - and don't live in California.
;o)>
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