In 1989, blowback was swift; alienation today is ‘systematic, progressive, long-term.’

China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists sparked a seminal crisis in Beijing’s relationship with the West. On the massacre’s 35th anniversary, China’s leaders face familiar international blowback over their conduct.

Instead of gunfire, today’s sources of discomfort about China are a mix of its aggressive industrial policy and militarization toward neighbors, plus a national-security agenda from Chinese leader Xi Jinping that has curtailed personal freedoms at home and shaped affairs abroad.

  • @[email protected]OPEnglish
    36•6 months ago

    Why not let the students words speak for themselves? Wikipedia

    Students list seven demands of the government.

    1. Affirm Hu Yaobang’s views on democracy and freedom as correct.

    2. Admit that the campaigns against spiritual pollution and bourgeois liberalization had been wrong.

    3. Publish information on the income of state leaders and their family members.

    4. Allow privately run newspapers and stop press censorship.

    5. Increase funding for education and raise intellectuals’ pay.

    6. End restrictions on demonstrations in Beijing.

    7. Provide objective coverage of students in official media.

    • @[email protected]English
      -24•6 months ago

      You are just doing what i criticised. You are cherry-picking instead of acknowledging the protests as a whole.

      Freedom of expression was one of many goals. And the protests were caused by the capitalist reforms, which gave rise to people demanding freedom of expression to be able to express their anger over the consequences of those capitalist reforms.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre

      The protests were precipitated by the death of pro-reform Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Hu Yaobang in April 1989 amid the backdrop of rapid economic development and social change in post-Mao China, reflecting anxieties among the people and political elite about the country’s future. The reforms of the 1980s had led to a nascent market economy that benefited some people but seriously disadvantaged others, and the one-party political system also faced a challenge to its legitimacy. Common grievances at the time included inflation, corruption, limited preparedness of graduates for the new economy, and restrictions on political participation. Although they were highly disorganized and their goals varied, the students called for things like rollback of the removal of “iron rice bowl” jobs, greater accountability, constitutional due process, democracy, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech. Workers’ protests were generally focused on inflation and the erosion of welfare. These groups united around anti-corruption demands, adjusting economic policies, and protecting social security. At the height of the protests, about one million people assembled in the square.

      China was already state capitalist by then and people protested that.

      • @[email protected]English
        20•6 months ago

        I guess you missed the main section at the top:

        Goals

        End of corruption within the Chinese Communist Party, as well as democratic reforms, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of association, social equality, democratic input on economic reforms