June 04, 2004

Tiananmen Square

What do you remember most about the Tiananmen Square massacre? The lone protestor standing in front of the tank?

On the 15th anniversary of this event comes a very good story regarding this brave soul:

No one knows whether he's dead or alive. Chinese activists and government officials say they aren't even sure of his name. After suddenly emerging to symbolize for the world the fierce power of the individual spirit in the face of martial rule, he vanished.

"For me, he represents the unknown soldier of the Chinese democratic revolution," said John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based human rights group. "What's so strange is that his act of bravery was conducted in plain view of the world. But other than seeing his act, we know so very little about him."

However, within the story comes this most extraordinary revelation:

No one in the country has ever seen the images. In fact, no ordinary Chinese beyond the protesters and soldiers involved even knows of the standoff. Even today, Chinese can't see the famous photograph, even on the Internet. Attempts to download the picture are blocked by the government.

Simply amazing...it's a concept that here in America most people can't understand.

Comments:

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It's a concept many in America understand very well. That's why the vr-wc doesn't want the biasedlibrulmedia to tell us about such things as Abu Ghraib. And if they do anyway, the messenger is always worse than the evildoers. Remember Watergate? What do you remember most about it? That a republican president wiped his butt with the Constitution, or that the easternlibrulpress hounded a good man out of office for doing what every other president had done?

Posted by: The Token Librul at June 4, 2004 04:13 PM