Wikileaks Cables Say No Bloodshed Inside Tiananmen Square 235
netchaos writes "Secret cables from the United States embassy in Beijing have shown there was no bloodshed inside Tiananmen Square when China put down student pro-democracy demonstrations 22 years ago." Which is not to say that everything was flowers and wine: "Instead, the cables show that Chinese soldiers opened fire on protesters outside the centre of Beijing, as they fought their way towards the square from the west of the city."
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No big secret here (Score:2, Interesting)
No one was run over by tanks.
Also many forget that this wasn't just a few thousand idle students peacefully hanging out in the square. There were about a *million* disaffected students and unemployed workers camping out wherever they could, demanding free food from vendors, and harassing the general public. This went on for almost a month before the government took action.
Think about how long a million people would be allowed to camp outside the US capitol buildings, especially if they were harassing and looting.
Re:No big secret here (Score:4, Interesting)
Think about how long a million people would be allowed to camp outside the US capitol buildings, especially if they were harassing and looting.
It happened, recall the Bonus Army. *four* people died. Not hundreds (or possibly thousands, accounts vary) like in or around Tiananmen Square.
Re:No big secret here (Score:5, Interesting)
I was working for CTV news in Toronto at the time and I saw the raw footage of a protester getting run over by a tank and squashed like a bug. It's not something you forget. The footage was edited down to make it look like the tank had stopped, which it did, hesitating for a few seconds.
Two weeks later we were visited by the Chinese head of media and they were given a full tour of the facility.
Re:No big secret here (Score:4, Interesting)
Slashdot you're beginning to really suck.
Re:No big secret here (Score:5, Interesting)
Was this footage made public? If not, why not?
Re:No big secret here (Score:2, Interesting)
>> ...everything that was ever reported about the incident was incorrect.
So, it sounds like you're thinking, hey, if there were no casualties in Tiananmen Square, maybe there were few if any casualties at all. Maybe it was all a Big Lie.
Let me dissuade you of that.
My wife was there. She used to work in Beijing. She witnessed first-hand the atrocities. She describes walking down a street and feeling a sticky sensation under her shoes from stepping in blood. She has nightmares about this stuff. She cries when I ask her about June 4, 1989. She was almost shot herself. This was west of Tiananmen, as a large crowd was heading to the Square to protest. Hundreds of victims? From her description, certainly. Thousands? I don't know. There were casualties in more than one location, so it's hard to know.
There are pictures, there are eye-witness accounts, and there are other forms of evidence. The massacre in Beijing on June 4, 1989 did happen. Whether anyone died in Tiananmen Square proper is completely irrelevant. It's certainly irrelevant to the dead.
>> And what, you think the US government doesn't shoot protestors here?
Not like this. Never like this. Not once, ever, in our history. The US government has done plenty of bad things. Not once have they deliberately opened fire with live ammunition on peaceful protests and killed hundreds or thousands of people. When Kent State happened, 4 students were killed; but even there, no fire order was ever deliberately given. The Chinese government issued specific orders to its military to open fire with live ammunition. There's no comparison.
Whatever you do with the information from WikiLeaks, you shouldn't assume that somehow the Chinese government was the victim here. I sense the possibility of a Big Lie being spread, one where somehow the Chinese government wasn't responsible for that day or didn't really deliberately slaughter its own people. It did.