A day never to be forgotten

Today is a day the Chinese government would like to erase from history.

For that very reason, it is important that we not forget.

Twenty years ago last night, troops began making their way to Tiananmen Square. Crowds of people tried to stop them and slow their progress, knowing that there would be bloodshed. But the troops prevailed.

Late that night they reached Tiananmen and the massacre began.

It would continue for several hours into Sunday, June 4.

Estimates of how many were killed range from 300 to 3,000. The government, of course, pushes the lower number just as it tries to minimize the significance of the greatest public protest movement in Chinese history.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators occupied Tiananmen Square for months in the spring of 1989, drawn together by a desire for reform, democracy, and human rights.

Their spirit captured the attention of the world, and by revealing the cracks in the iron fist of the government they may have sealed their own doom.

Those few in the higher echelon of the Communist Party who suggested negotiating with the student demonstrators and liberalizing policies on free speech soon found themselves out of power and under house arrest.

Today China's economy is something like six times what it was in 1989.

In material terms, the lives of many of its citizens - particularly those in major cities - are vastly improved.

But in terms of democracy, transparency, and freedom of expression the situation is unchanged from that night when the tanks and troops began to make their way into the square.

China today is as authoritarian, opaque, and repressive as it has ever been.

And until that changes, all its economic progress is hollow. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]