mono

June 4, 2004 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the Chinese government's massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

With this post I wish to honor the hundreds, possibly thousands, of pro-democracy students and ordinary citizens killed by Chinese troops on that day.

The young man in the picture above, a journalist, seen with his wife, was among those shot on June 4, just a few days after the picture was taken.

The Guardian has published an online reprint of their first coverage of the massacre, a June 5, 1989 feature entitled 'Thousands dead' as ruthless assault goes on — Wounded die for lack of care:

The Chinese government is at war with its own people. The army's ruthless assault on unarmed citizens went on unabated all yesterday and through the night, as soldiers cleared the streets of Beijing with machine-gun fire, and armoured personnel carriers moved toward the precincts of the city's universities. Early this morning, fresh troops were entering the capital from the east. Food supplies were beginning to run short, public transport had been suspended, and no newspapers were published.

There were no answer to the question of how long the Chinese government intends the killing to go on. Early yesterday, it announced a 'great victory' over the 'thugs and criminals' whose three-week occupation of Tiananmen Square was described as an attempt to 'overthrow the socialist system'.

Beijing's hospitals are overflowing with wounded citizens, many dying for lack of blood supplies or adequate medical help. Doctors estimated the death toll at several thousands with many times more injured. Truckloads of corpes were seen being taken to the Babaoshan crematorium in the west.

See also The Guardian's What they said about... 15 years after Tiananmen for a summary of Asian media coverage of the fifteenth anniversary, and The Epoch Times' collection of articles on Hong Kong Democracy.

TIMEasia's The Exile and the Entrepreneur, a story about two Chinese cousins adds further perspective to the legacy of Tiananmen, and is well worth a read. Here is an excerpt:

In China, Wang Lichao is busy following not an American dream but today's Chinese one: getting rich is now increasingly seen as a birthright for anyone young, urban and smart. But even as he moves comfortably into the mainland's growing middle class, Wang Lichao is aware that there is something missing. It is not just the unfulfilled ideals of democracy and free speech for which his cousin fought and, in his quixotic way, is still fighting. Wang Lichao also misses the man himself. Tiananmen has torn their family apart. Most of Wang Dan's other cousins want nothing to do with such a disreputable character. But Wang Lichao has remained fiercely loyal to his cousin. "Growing up, they were like two halves," says Wang Dan's mother, Wang Lingyun. "Wang Dan is a city boy who became famous and Wang Lichao is a country boy who no one knows. But they have a connection you rarely see even in brothers." Now, each is like a shadow of the other: Wang Lichao stands for all that China has achieved, Wang Dan for all that remains to be done.