35 years ago, in China, this happened...

and this...

Lovers of freedom and liberty rightly condemn The People's Republic [sic] of China abuses of human rights such as the Tiananmen Square massacre. Such abuses continue today, particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet. China doesn't tolerate mass protests any more. Is that so wrong? 

Agent 78 returned recently from a lengthy trip through China. She reports that there no demonstrations or protests like those currently to be seen in just about every Western country, where students, professional malcontents and foreign agitators are in the streets in support of Hamas terrorists,gay "rights", trans "rights",BLM,safe injection sites, yada yada yada. The list of things these scum are in favour of... or fighting against... is a long one, laden with bullshit.

Agent 78 reports that China has no such protests. There are many other things that China doesn't have: 

• massive encampments of the "unhoused" (read: homeless) 
• parks and schoolgrounds littered with needles and other drug paraphernalia
• media which promote and glorify perversion and decadence 
• daily reports of gun violence, looting (read: "reparations shopping"), and mayhem
• houses that cost 50 or 100 times what an average worker can afford
• masses of illigal immigrants swarming through open borders             

and the list goes on. Western society is falling apart. Look around your town or city, dear reader, and ask yourself if a little less "human rights" and a little more law and order wouldn't make things better. Any party or any politician who makes a credible promise [Is there such a thing? Ed.] to clean things up has my vote! MAGA!

Remembering the martyrs of Tiananmen Square

It is not only Christians who are persecuted to the point of martyrdom in Communist China. (See "World Day of Prayer for the Catholic Church in China", WWW 24/5/21.) Nor Uyghurs, who are being herded into "re-education schools" reminiscent of the worst excesses of Nazi Germany. Ordinary Chinese -- students, workers, and other "plain people" -- have been struggling against the might of the Communist police state for decades. 

Many have given up their lives in the fight for democracy and freedom. Today let us pause for a moment to remember those who, were killed by the "People's Liberation Army" (sic), in what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre (天安门大屠杀). 

32 years ago today, troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's advance into Bejing's Tiananmen Square. The protests started on April 15th and were forcibly suppressed on June 4th, when the Communist government declared martial law and sent the PLA to occupy parts of central Beijing. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded.

Today in Hong Kong, now a "special economic zone" (read: colony) of the People's Republic of China, police arrested an organizer of the annual candlelight vigil commemorating what the Commies call "the June 4th incident". People were warned not to attend the event, banned by the pro-Communist city government in an attempt to silence pro-democracy voices.

This is the second yeare the vigil has been prohibited. Last year, authorities were quick to blame the ban on the risks of large crowds gathering during the Kung flu pandemic. That excuse won't wash this year. It's just part of the Communists' continuing campaign to control the once-free city, including a new national security law, election changes and arrests of many activists who participated in the "yellow umbrella" pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong in 2019.

Hong Kong had been the last place in China where the massacre was publicly commemorated. In past years tens of thousands of people gathered in Victoria Park to honour the victims who died when the Communist Chinese military put down student-led pro-democracy protests. In Tiananmen Square itself this morning, security was increased and police checked identities of pedestrians while tour buses shuttled Chinese tourists onto the square as on any other day.

But, dear reader, it's not just another day. Please take a moment to remember and, if you're so inclined, pray for those who have suffered and are still suffering under the yoke of Communist imperialism. Today Hong Kong, tomorrow east Asia. And then, the rest of the world!

Hong Kong government ramps up violence vs pro-democracy protesters

As I write, in the wee hours of the morning, Hong Kong time, the city is relatively quiet. Pro-democracy protesters, the majority of them high school and college students yesterday, are licking their wounds -- literally -- after a day filled with violence and terrorism, perpetrated by the Hong Kong police to quell yet another day of anti-government protests.

For over thirteen weeks now -- a quarter of a year -- the Hong Kong "Special Administrative Region of China" has been convulsed by sometimes violent protests and mass demonstrations, in response to a proposed law by the Communist-backed administration of CEO Carrie Lam that would allow people suspected of crimes on the mainland to be extradited to face trial in Chinese courts.

Today was supposed to be back-to-school day in Hong Kong, but yesterday over 100,000 students chose to go on strike to force the puppet government not just to withdraw completely the extradition bill, but guarantee the people of Hong Kong the democratic freedoms they were promised under the "one country two systems" provisions of the agreement between Britain and China when the Brits handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997.

The student demonstrators tried to make their point peacefully -- chanting and holding up signs -- while at the same time obstructing the flow of traffic in the city-state's streets and around the airport, one of the world's busiest. Hong Kong police responded by using pepper spray against travellers on the city's Mass Transit Railway (MTR), beating them with batons regardless of whether or not they were involved in the pro-democracy demonstrations.

Radio Free Asia reported that police began beating individuals indiscriminately at the Prince Edward MTR station, attacking them with pepper spray which they were sitting quietly on trains. RFA cited video which showed that "the police, who wore the black, armored uniforms of the 'raptor' special forces, appeared to be in pursuit of protesters, but instead attacked passengers indiscriminately, the footage showed. One was a small boy who was left with head injuries." Footage appeared to show individuals, including protesters, trying to stop police from beating innocent bystanders but largely failing to prevent the violence.

Just a few minutes ago, Reuters reported that Ms Lam, speaking in last week to a group of businesspeople, said she has caused "unforgivable havoc" by igniting the political crisis engulfing the city and would quit if she had a choice. But she doesn't. Under Hong Kong's current political set-up, the Chief Executive is chosen indirectly, by a group of electors (not unlike the American Electoral College!) chosen in elections rigged to favour pro-Beijing candidates.

At the closed-door meeting, Ms Lam told the group that she now has "very limited" room to resolve the crisis because the unrest has become a national security and sovereignty issue for China amid rising tensions with the United States. "If I have a choice," she said, speaking in English, "the first thing is to quit, having made a deep apology."

She suggested that Beijing had not yet reached a turning point, and had not imposed any deadline for ending the crisis ahead of China's National Day celebrations scheduled for October 1. And, she said, China had "absolutely no plan" to deploy People's Liberation Army troops on Hong Kong streets. World leaders have been closely watching whether China will send in the military to quell the protests, as it did a generation ago in the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.

Ms Lam noted, however, that she had few options once an issue had been elevated "to the national level" -- meaning the Communist Party Pollitburo in Beijing -- "to a sort of sovereignty and security level, let alone in the midst of this sort of unprecedented tension between the two big economies in the world."

Walt, spent the better (?) party of two years in Hong Kong and its twin across the bay, Shenzhen, is watching too, and is in complete sympathy with the protesters. Will our leaders, who preach democracy and freedom (except of course in their own countries) do anything to help the people of Hong Kong in their struggle to avoid total domination by the Chinese Communists? I'm sad to say I think the chances are slim and none. But stay tuned.

Umbrellas unfurled again in Hong Kong protest

In a fit of tone-deafness remarkable even for the Chinese Communists, the puppet government of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong chose the week of the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre to introduce in the legislative council a new law that would enable the extradition of Hong Kong Chinese (including those resident overseas) to the mainland for trial on any criminal charge. That would include treason, spying, and any act against the state or the Communist Party.

In response, Hong Kongers are turning out in the hundreds of thousands to protest the erosion of the "special status" in matters social, political and legal that Hong Kong was supposed to retain after the handover of the former British colony to Red China in 1997. Organizers say that over 1,000,000 people joined in the demonstrations today, blocking two main highways near government headquarters. Since the population of HKG is roughly 7,000,000, that's a pretty good turnout! Most of the protesters are students and young people. Students were boycotting classes to attend the rallies.

Despite official calls to disperse, demonstrators continued to march today. They overturned police barriers and stood their ground even when confronted with pepper spray and a threat by police to use force if they continued to oppose their orders. Some protesters left umbrellas on the police barricades, an homage to the "Occupy Democracy" movement that began in 2014. "Didn’t we say at the end of the Umbrella movement we would be back?" pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo told the meeja, referring to the name often used for the 2014 "Occupy" demonstrations. The massive, months-long campaign was prompted by constitutional reforms that allowed Beijing to approve candidates for Hong Kong elections.

Many in Hong Kong are also upset by the creeping authoritarianism in Hong Kong, after they were promised autonomy when the perfidious British handed it back to the even more perfidious Chinese in 1997. Before and since, China has promised Hong Kong self-rule under the slogan of "one country, two systems". The move to allow extradition to China is only the latest example of the falsehood of the Communist Chinese "guarantees", their poor human rights record and blatant disregard for the rule of law.

The puppet government is still backing the extradition bill, which is expected to pass its final reading on June 20th. However, the Legislative Council (LegCo) announced late today (local time) that the second reading will be "delayed", the excuse being that the protests have clogged u p the streets around the LegCo building to the point where not enoough legislators were able to get in to attend the session. Agent 78, who knows a thing or two about Hong Kong and how things work in the People's Republic, says this is clearly a face-saving measure, and doesn't mean that the "umbrella revolutionaries" have won. "You can fight the puppets, but you can't beat the puppet-master." Stay tuned.

Further reading:
"Hong Kong's 'Umbrella Revolution' - paying the price for democracy", WWW 29/9/14
"5 things you should know about the Umbrella Revolution", WWW 3/10/14
"Do not forget the martyrs of Tiananmen Square", WWW 4/6/19

Do not forget the martyrs of Tiananmen Square

In the People's Republic of China (aka Communist China), foreign teachers of English, History or any subject are forbidden to teach about, talk about or even mention the "Three T's". The first two are Tibet (as in "Chinese occupation of" and "genocide") and Taiwan (which stubbornly refuses to admit that it is and has always been a province of China). The third "T" is the Tiananmen Square massacre, an atrocity perpetrated by China's Communist rulers 30 years ago today. The story is encapsulated in this single iconic image.

In China, the massacre of student protesters is referred to (when mentioned at all) as "the June Fourth Incident" or "Six Four". Student-led demonstrations in Beijing in mid-1989 inspired a popular (except with the Red government) national movement called the "`89 Democracy Movement". In response to the protests, the Communists declared martial law and sent in the military to occupy central parts of Beijing. People's Liberation Army troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators, killing perhaps as many as 2500 and wounding 1000s more.

The international community and human rights organizations condemned the Chinese government for what can only be called a massacre. Western countries imposed arms embargoes on China. The Communists made widespread arrests of protesters and their supporters, suppressed other protests around China, expelled foreign journalists, strictly controlled coverage of the events in the domestic press, strengthened the police and internal security forces, and demoted or purged officials it deemed sympathetic to the protests. Some of those arrested died in prison, and some languish there even today.

The suppression halted the "open and reform" policies of liberalization instituted by Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s. Considered a watershed event, the protests set the limits on political expression in China up to the present day. Its memory is widely associated with questioning the legitimacy of Communist Party rule and remains one of the most sensitive and most widely censored topics in China. Even now, as noted above, foreign teachers are forbidden to mention the massacre, on pain of instant dismissal and deportation.

Foreign visitors do well to feign ignorance of "the June Fourth Incident". Real ignorance, however, is inexcusable, which is why Walt is posting this reminder. In Hong Kong there is still -- for a limited time only -- some liberty to speak out for democracy and freedom of expression. Here we see a student at Hong Kong University cleaning the monument memorializing the Tiananmen Square massacre. We in somewhat free countries must not forget what happens when you dare to oppose a repressive totalitarian government like that of Communist China or... some other country....

Further reading:
"Encroaching Totalitarianism in The West", by E. Jeffrey Ludwig, in American Thinker, 4/6/19
Harrison Salisbury: Tiananmen Diary: Thirteen Days in June, Little, Brown & Co., 1989

Hong Kong's "Umbrella Revolution" -- paying the price for democracy

This past June, Joseph Cardinal Zen, the retired Archbishop of Hong Kong, reiterated his support for a democracy initiative in that "Special Administrative Region" of China. See "China -- not a good place to be a democrat or a Catholic". He predicted that the people of Hong Kong would "hit back if they are repressed and forced to be enslaved."

As surely as the red sun rises in the East, the Communist government of China announced in August that it would allow universal suffrage in Hong Kong when the next "Chief Executive Officer" of the SAR is elected in 2017. Just one catch though. All candidates for the office will have to be vetted and approved by the Communist Party of China. As they say in Harbin (where they actually do play hockey), the puck will be nailed to the stick.

The people of Hong Kong are not stupid. Although they never had universal suffrage in the days when HKG was a British colony, its people know how democracy should work, and what the Reds are "giving" them ain't it! So they've taken to the streets in their 1000s, in what started out as a peaceful protest. The "Occupy Central" demonstration turned into a near riot, as police assaulted the protesters with batons, pepper spray and teargas. As the picture shows, the protesters came prepared, raising umbrellas to deflect the noxious chemicals.

Leung Chun-ying, the po-faced incumbent CEO, surveyed the scene [That's a Chinese inside joke. Ed.] and declared the demonstrations illegal. The protesters were rioters, he said, and their demands for civic nomination of candidates for the position "lie outside the boundaries of the Basic Law" (Hong Kong’s mini-constitution).

Flanked by senior police officials as he spoke, Mr. Leung promised that protesters would be dealt with appropriately. The equipment carried by the special riot police on Sunday night suggests the authorities have access to much worse stuff than pepper spray and teargas, should they wish to use it.

Those brave enough to demonstrate for democracy and freedom -- most of them seem to be students -- may well fear for their safety, or even their lives. Remember what happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989! It's one thing to face up to cops on foot, wielding batons, but quite another to stand in front of a tank.

The big question today is how much longer the cat-and-mouse game between riot police and demonstrators can go on. As of the early hours of this morning (HKG time), police were still holding up warning signs, announcing that tear gas canisters would be fired, so giving protesters time to disperse and then regroup. That kind of "playing by the Marquess of Queensbury Rules" shouldn't be expected if Beijing sends in the so-called People's Liberation Army. PLA troops will likely to be brought from northern China, unable to speak Cantonese and less sympathetic than local police.

Mr. Leung is under intense pressure from Beijing to end the demonstrations before October 1st, when the Communist party celebrates the 65th anniversary of its seizure of power in power. Says William Lam (an old China hand) "If he can’t clear the streets and restore order he will be scolded by Beijing."

The last thing China's president, Xi Jinping, wants is to have one of the country’s most important cities in open revolt. The censors of the Great Firewall of China are working flat out to stop the spread of news about what is going on in Hong Kong. Key words have been banished from popular microblogging sites such as Weibo. [WWW is permanently blocked in China. Ed.]

The only thing worse than an openly defiant Hong Kong would be if protesters in other Chinese cities came out in sympathy. Unfortunately for Mr. Leung, he can't even begin to negotiate with the protesters, because he has nothing whatever to bring to the table. His masters in Beijing -- Mr. Leung does not admit publicly to being a Party member -- will not budge on their pronouncement about universal suffrage, which establishes a screening mechanism to ensure that only pro-Communist candidates need apply.

The Umbrella Revolution has already made a mockery of the concept of "one country, two systems", proclaimed when the British handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. The people of Hong Kong aren't kidding themselves. The reality is one big country, one little "special administrative region" and only one system.

Further reading on WWW: "Church refuses to see tyranny of Chinese communism: Cardinal Zen"

RIP Tank man and all victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre

Let us not forget what happened 25 years ago today. Here is an iconic picture to serve as a reminder.

On 4 June 1989, the world -- outside of China -- saw this image of a lone man staring down a procession of tanks in Tiananmen Square, the main square of Beijing, the capital of Communist China. What happened to him is unknown, but he's presumed to have died, along with hundreds of students and other young people who were demonstrating for democracy and freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech, not to mention democracy, remains unknown in China. The so-called "People's Republic" remains in the iron grip of the Communist Party. Censorship is so complete that most of today's university students have never heard of Tiananmen Square and "the events of 6.4.89", as the massacre is known. When Walt was teaching in China, some years ago, we foreign teachers were forbidden -- on pain o9f dismissal and deportation -- to even mention "the three T's": Taiwan, Tibet and Tiananmen Square.

Those few students who had heard of the massacre had been brainwashed to think that the quelling of the demonstration -- it wasn't even an uprising, you understand -- somehow helped the development of a modern, prosperous China! Today, there will be demonstrations in Hong Kong, where a limited amount of free speech is still allowed. But in China proper, Tiananmen Square will not be mentioned. The Communists have succeeded in erasing it from the public consciousness.

However, the grim story remains alive in the West, thanks in part to the efforts of media like Frontline, the flagship public affairs series of American public broadcaster PBS. Frontline has produced an excellent documentary on Tiananmen Square called "The Tank Man". Click here and follow the links to watch it online. (Sorry, not available to Chinese IP addresses.)

What's going on in China?

That's what Walt would like to know. I'm waiting for first- or even second-hand reports from Agents 78 and/or 88 to get behind the video clips on the TV news. Via satellite, I've been able to see clips aired on Hong Kong's TVB, showing large, angry demonstrations in the streets of Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai. One report says there was trouble in no fewer than 28 cities.

The ostensible target of the protests is Japan, which this past week purchased a couple of small islands to which China (and Taiwan) lay claim. The islands themselves are just dots of rock, but the sea around them is full of fish, and beneath the ocean floor there may be quantities of... you guessed it... oil.

So... 1000s of young people are protesting Japanese imperialism by throwing rocks at Japanese consulates, businesses... even Japanese cars. Walt [whose Putong'hua is severely limited. Ed.] was able to understand yells of "war" and "now". Is the Beijing government likely to declare war on Japan, or even send a force of marines to take back the rocks? About two platoons should do it, but trust me, it's not gonna happen. (Lifetime pct .090)

Why, then, would the Communist government allow these near-riots? And trust me again, if the government didn't want the demonstrations to take place, they wouldn't. Remember Tiananmen Square!

Walt's guess is that the "spontaneous" demonstrations, which seem to include large numbers of printed banners and pictures of Chairman Mao, are being permitted, perhaps even fomented, to deflect attention from the strange disappearance and reappearance of Xi Jinping, the heir apparent to Hu Jintao, the outgoing paramount leader of the People's Republic of China. Or maybe not.

Mr. Xi was widely expected to be acclaimed as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China late this year. In due course he would also become President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. When you wear all three hats, you indeed Da Man. It's like winning the Triple Crown.

But a funny thing happened on Xi's way to the throne. Around September 2nd, the presumptive emperor dropped out of sight, and remained so for about ten days, missing at least three scheduled public appearances. To the extent that the social media operate in China, tweets and twitters of "Where is She?" [That's how you say "Xi". Ed.] flashed across the land and around the world. But there was no answer until, like Lazarus, Xi emerged on Thursday, with no explanation or apology given.

Was Mr. Xi really suffering from a bad back, as was rumoured, or does he have a more severe health problem? Or is it his political health that's in question? Has there been a power struggle within the Forbidden City? The Chinese government no longer operates out of the ancient abode of the imperial court, but the metaphor is still valid.

And what will happen next? Will Xi succeed in succeeding? Or will he quietly step aside "for health reasons" in favour of... who? Or Hu? What does it all mean? To stop all those questions and rumours, perhaps a little diversion was thought to be in order...

Just one problem with that. When you let a tiger out of his cage, it's hard to predict what he will do, and harder still to get him back in the cage. The demonstrations I saw on the idiot's lantern today seem grossly disproportionate to the degree of bother the average Chinese would feel about two tiny islets being taken over by the Japanese.

The marchers seemed to be pelting the police and soldiers -- and there were 1000s of them too, armed with teargas and water cannon -- with abandon equal to that with which they attacked the Japanese buildings. I had the sense of a lot of pent-up anger and frustration being released. And I wonder when and where it will stop.

Go fly a kite...but not in Beijing!

October 1st will be the 60th anniversary of Chairman Mao's proclamation of the People's Republic of China. This year's National Day will therefore be the occasion of great celebration by all right-thinking (left-thinking? ed.) Chinese, whether in the PRC or overseas.

Or not.

It seems the Communists are more than a little nervous at the possibility that some "splittists" or "rightists" or "dissidents" might mark the anniversary by staging some sort of anti-government demonstration. Shades of "the events of 6/4", as the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 is known.

To guard against this, the Communist authorities -- an appropriate word if ever there was one -- have launched a security crackdown undreamed of by even the most paranoid Americans. One of a long list of banned activities is flying over the capital city.

We're not just talking about airplanes here. They mean any kind of flying, including kites and pigeons!

Walt is not making this up. According to a report in the Shenzhen Daily, in its latest efforts to beef up security ahead of the National Day celebrations, Beijing has widened a ban on flying activities to include pigeons and kite-flying.

The ban, which is effective September 15th to October 8th, applies to sports, recreational and advertising flight activities in the capital. Residents are prohibited from releasing pigeons, and flying kites and balloons, even at celebrations and shopping promotions.

In Walt's observations of China, the ban on pigeons should hardly be necessary, since they, along with any other living thing that flies through the air, will already have been eaten.

What Walt's reading -- books about China

Walt spent three years in China in the middle of this decade and maintains a lively interest in that country and its people. China is a land where nothing is what it seems. Nothing should be taken at face value. So it's a hard country and culture for westerners to understand. Books and articles which succeed in getting behind the masks and screens to present a glimpse of the real China are therefore to be prized.

One such is Out of Mao's Shadow: the Struggle for the Soul of a New China, by Philip P. Pan (Simon & Schuster, 2008. 349 pp. $28) Mr. Pan is a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, and their former Beijing bureau chief. Although American born, he speaks fluent Chinese and spent seven years eluding the Communist authorities and talking to people whose voices would otherwise go unheard.

His book is a collection of 11 stories of "ordinary" Chinese people, narrating their struggles to come to terms with their nation's past -- the trumoil and trauma of Mao's rule -- and promote real political change.

The Young people who filled Tiananmen Square just over 20 years ago saw their hopes -- and some, their bodies -- crushed in a massacre. In spite of that, Pan reveals, many continue to push for justice. They are the survivors whose families endured one of the world's deadliest famines during the Great Leap Forward, whose idealism was exploited during the madness of the Cultural Revolution, and whose values are now tested by the booming Chinese economy and the rush to get rich.

Out of Mao's Shadow offers a startling new perspective on China, challenging our assumption (so often expressed by our "experts" on foreign affairs) that free markets automatically lead to free societies. In the case of China, it's simply not so. The Communists are in control of China, as firmly as ever. Read this book and see for yourself how and why China has become the world's most successful authoritarian state.

Recently read and recommendable: Poorly made in China : an insider's account of the tactics behind China's production game, by Paul Midler (Wiley, 2009). If you're importing products from China, or even if you just buy Chinese goods (impossible to do otherwise), you should read this cautionary tale about "Chinese quality control".