According to news sites world wide, on Tuesday, blocked Twitter access from within its borders ahead of today's 20th anniversary of the Tinanmen Square massacre. Twitter is a "microblogging" site where one gets "followers" (readers) and sends tweets (microblog posts). It's extremely popular as anyone can send a tweet from a cell phone via a text message, a laptop computer, and via a number of other ways.
The Massacre was horrible. Your blogger was in summer school that summer, finishing up the last of her college coursework. Every night, Ted Koppell was on ABC's Nightline talking about the subject and the tension built. Many of we young conservatives at the time were inspired to fight communism and to work towards freedom and democracy for everyone, and for every nation. KCC became more dedicated to freedom than ever.
Then it was over and blood covered the streets of the Chinese capital city. The freedom-seeking university students were dead and we could do nothing about it.
"On May 13, thousands of pro-democracy students had occupied Tiananmen Square beginning a hunger strike to press for political reform. At the same time, international media had descended upon Beijing in anticipation of a state visit by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the first summit in 30 years between the two countries.
At the conclusion of Gorbachev’s visit, the government declared martial law, but it was half-hearted. Protesters blocked the army from entering Beijing and it retreated.
As we made our way north toward Beijing by train, boat and bus, we watched the growing democratic movement flourish, in villages and cities. With universities and colleges closed, students and workers, protesting corruption and inflation, marched through the streets chanting democratic slogans and carrying red and white banners to display their solidarity with the Beijing protesters.
Businessmen, shopkeepers and even the elderly cheered them on. I spoke with a retired professor in Chengdu, Sichuan, who said there had never been so much spirit in China. He said he wished he could be a student again.
We watched students climb aboard trains and buses headed for Beijing to join their comrades. Everywhere we went it seemed people were swept up in the students’ fervour for democracy.
We arrived in Beijing on May 30. Every day, after visiting tourist sites, we stopped at Tiananmen Square to speak with the protesters in their scattered village of tents.
The atmosphere was festive as the protesting students barbecued, sang along to rock music piped from loud speakers and huddled around guitars, strumming quietly in the hot afternoon sun.
As foreigners, we enjoyed celebrity status. The students often approached us, wondering what the world was hearing about their demonstration. They showed off their Goddess of Democracy statue, asked us to sign T-shirts and wanted to practice speaking English. A few said they were anxious to get back to their studies.
But on June 2, Deng Xiaoping and other Communist party leaders, humiliated by the international attention, ordered a military crackdown to end the crisis. On the afternoon of June 3, returning from an outing to the Great Wall, we dropped in at Tiananmen Square which was surrounded by army vehicles and tanks.
If you haven't heard much, if anything about this in the "lamestream media", don't be surprised. They want you to pretend that Communism is dead. It's not and your blogger can tell you this FIRST HAND.
Read an interesting history of the events leading up to the massacre, here. Also, watch the video, produced by the BBC on June 4th, 1989. If you are too young to remember this event, please educate yourself on this. Do not think for one moment that China is not our enemy.
In the opinion of this blogger, the opening of trade with China, not Watergate, is the terrible legacy of the Richard M. Nixon presidency.
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