Posted on May 18, 2018
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A crowd of protesters, estimated to number more than one million, marches through the streets of Beijing calling for a more democratic political system. Just a few weeks later, the Chinese government moved to crush the protests.
Protests in China had been brewing since the mid-1980s when the communist government announced that it was loosening some of the restrictions on the economy, allowing for a freer market to develop. Encouraged by this action, a number of Chinese (particularly students) began to call for similar action on the political front. By early 1989, peaceful protests began to take place in some of China’s largest urban areas. The largest of these protests took place around Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing. By the middle of May 1989, enormous crowds took to the streets with songs, slogans, and banners calling for greater democracy and the ouster of some hard-line Chinese officials. The Chinese government responded with increasingly harsh measures, including arrests and beatings of some protesters. On June 3, 1989, Chinese armed forces stormed into Tiananmen Square and swept the protesters away. Thousands were killed and over 10,000 were arrested in what came to be known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The protests attracted worldwide attention. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev applauded the protesters and publicly declared that reform was necessary in communist China. In the United States, the Chinese students were treated like heroes by the American press. Following the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a shocked U.S. government suspended arms sales to China and imposed economic sanctions. The Chinese government, however, refused to bend, referring to the protesters as “lawless elements” of Chinese society.
Protests in China had been brewing since the mid-1980s when the communist government announced that it was loosening some of the restrictions on the economy, allowing for a freer market to develop. Encouraged by this action, a number of Chinese (particularly students) began to call for similar action on the political front. By early 1989, peaceful protests began to take place in some of China’s largest urban areas. The largest of these protests took place around Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing. By the middle of May 1989, enormous crowds took to the streets with songs, slogans, and banners calling for greater democracy and the ouster of some hard-line Chinese officials. The Chinese government responded with increasingly harsh measures, including arrests and beatings of some protesters. On June 3, 1989, Chinese armed forces stormed into Tiananmen Square and swept the protesters away. Thousands were killed and over 10,000 were arrested in what came to be known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The protests attracted worldwide attention. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev applauded the protesters and publicly declared that reform was necessary in communist China. In the United States, the Chinese students were treated like heroes by the American press. Following the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a shocked U.S. government suspended arms sales to China and imposed economic sanctions. The Chinese government, however, refused to bend, referring to the protesters as “lawless elements” of Chinese society.
One million protesters take to the streets in Beijing - May 18, 1989 - HISTORY.com
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SGT Brian Nile SGT Robert George SFC Shirley Whitfield MSG Mark Million Christine C Cullinan COL Lee Flemming SFC George Smith SrA Christopher Wright LTC (Join to see) PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SSgt Harvey "Skip" Porter SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell SGT (Join to see) Alan K. SPC Mike Lake SFC Anthony Beck LTC Greg Henning SSgt (Join to see) Sgt Trevor Barrett
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THIS is one of those "forever" things permanently etched into my memory.
This is also why it INFURIATES me that certain of our previous administrations have so often thought they could "buy off" the world's largest (THRIVING) Communist dictatorship by kowtowing to their existence as "most favored nation" trading partner. As if making belligerent China trillions of dollars richer via Capitalist trade practices, less restrictive tariffs, etc., will in any way overshadow their vile and draconian, anti-human political ideologies! As if "going easy" on them by not imposing disciplinary tariffs (for their rampant piracy of our technologies and products, for their ongoing human rights violations, etc.) will somehow make them "kinder, gentler" thermonuclear-armed adversaries... Gimme a break! It's like giving more baubles to a dragon with the assumption that shiny objects will keep it from eventually roasting and eating you one day.
Besides the fact that far too many Americans these days have a wickedly short memory, we also have at the very least, two entire generations of younger citizens who are too young (and naïve, or just plain apathetic and lazy) to even consider communism a threat at all (let alone a persistent evil in the world). With that kind of infantile, self-absorbed mind-set, it is no wonder they don't recall (or even care) how many tens of thousands of Americans have died fighting that same evil since its rise to power in Russia, China, SE Asia, Cuba, parts of Africa, etc.! And when ever-softening Americans don't spent the time and effort to buy domestic-made stuff, or to research where (and to whom) their money is going, nearly every product they buy these days (from a toothbrush, to a plastic toy, to imported clothes and shoes, to 99% of recreational and general household products, etc.) is PAYING the world's largest Communist nation, a nation long ago aligned with its Slavic neighbor Russia, and avowed to our destruction, committed to waiting however long it takes to defeat democracy, and a nation responsible even for the deaths of hundreds of millions of its own citizens to advance its quiet, stealthy, megalomaniacal aims of dominating the world.
Frankly, most folks don't realize that for every item: from many huge big-screen TVs, to worthless, throw-away trinkets we buy in big-box retailers across this land, we are sending China's recently-'crowned' Dictator-for-Life still more money. But he's already proven he won't use it to end the repression in his country; not to make the lives of his slave-wage citizens better. He is using it to build man-made islands in international waters from which to threaten our allies, and new aircraft carriers, aircraft, tanks, guns and bullets to point right back at us. China is, lest we forget, the world's third largest (3rd most dangerous) thermonuclear power. Their government beliefs and policies are diametrically opposed to ours. They may not let their true dominant intentions slip as often as Putin does, or allow their misdeeds to make headlines like North Korea, but make no mistake, they are and have ever been, a dragon.
WAKE UP America!
This is also why it INFURIATES me that certain of our previous administrations have so often thought they could "buy off" the world's largest (THRIVING) Communist dictatorship by kowtowing to their existence as "most favored nation" trading partner. As if making belligerent China trillions of dollars richer via Capitalist trade practices, less restrictive tariffs, etc., will in any way overshadow their vile and draconian, anti-human political ideologies! As if "going easy" on them by not imposing disciplinary tariffs (for their rampant piracy of our technologies and products, for their ongoing human rights violations, etc.) will somehow make them "kinder, gentler" thermonuclear-armed adversaries... Gimme a break! It's like giving more baubles to a dragon with the assumption that shiny objects will keep it from eventually roasting and eating you one day.
Besides the fact that far too many Americans these days have a wickedly short memory, we also have at the very least, two entire generations of younger citizens who are too young (and naïve, or just plain apathetic and lazy) to even consider communism a threat at all (let alone a persistent evil in the world). With that kind of infantile, self-absorbed mind-set, it is no wonder they don't recall (or even care) how many tens of thousands of Americans have died fighting that same evil since its rise to power in Russia, China, SE Asia, Cuba, parts of Africa, etc.! And when ever-softening Americans don't spent the time and effort to buy domestic-made stuff, or to research where (and to whom) their money is going, nearly every product they buy these days (from a toothbrush, to a plastic toy, to imported clothes and shoes, to 99% of recreational and general household products, etc.) is PAYING the world's largest Communist nation, a nation long ago aligned with its Slavic neighbor Russia, and avowed to our destruction, committed to waiting however long it takes to defeat democracy, and a nation responsible even for the deaths of hundreds of millions of its own citizens to advance its quiet, stealthy, megalomaniacal aims of dominating the world.
Frankly, most folks don't realize that for every item: from many huge big-screen TVs, to worthless, throw-away trinkets we buy in big-box retailers across this land, we are sending China's recently-'crowned' Dictator-for-Life still more money. But he's already proven he won't use it to end the repression in his country; not to make the lives of his slave-wage citizens better. He is using it to build man-made islands in international waters from which to threaten our allies, and new aircraft carriers, aircraft, tanks, guns and bullets to point right back at us. China is, lest we forget, the world's third largest (3rd most dangerous) thermonuclear power. Their government beliefs and policies are diametrically opposed to ours. They may not let their true dominant intentions slip as often as Putin does, or allow their misdeeds to make headlines like North Korea, but make no mistake, they are and have ever been, a dragon.
WAKE UP America!
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