Current Events > God damn, the Tiananmen Square Massacre was brutal

(+) Yeah! (+)

Saw a documentary about it last night. These are pretty much the spark notes

-In 1989 thousands of college students stage a protest in Beijing against the corruption in the Chinese government and demand free speech, democracy, certain members of the communist party to step down, and an open dialogue with the Chinese leaders.

-Government refuses to meet the demand of the students so the students start a hunger strike.

-People from around the country start supporting the college students and multiple protests break out throughout the country.

-The government is scared of losing power; the leaders decide to hold an open dialogue with the student leaders.

-During the meeting, the student leaders were arrogant and pissed of the representatives from the government. They dialogue ended with nothing getting resolved.

-Throughout the whole protest the government heads have been repeatedly embarrassed and threaten military action for the second time. (The first attempt failed because the students blocked the convoys and convinced the army commanders to turn back)

-People's Liberation Army comes into Beijing for the second time. This time the soldiers are armed and most of them are from rural China and don't know anything about the protest other than what the government has told them; that the protestors are armed terrorists.

-Protestors get pissed off and start insulting the soldiers.

-PLA starts attacking the crowd with small arms fire and tanks. They're not just shooting the protestors either, they even attack ordinary people riding buses or looking outside their windows and running anybody over with their tanks and APCs.

-Protestors fight back by throwing rocks and molotov cocktails at soldiers and tanks. Some tanks crews are even dragged out of their burning vehicles and beaten to death. There was even one soldier who was set on fire and later hung from a bridge.

Aftermath

-After stamping out the protests there's a massive crackdown by the government with thousands of civilians getting arrested, tortured, and imprisoned. There's also a purge in the government itself to weed out sympathizers.

-Government claims only 218 civilians; 10 PLA soldiers; 13 Peoples' Armed Police were killed. But the chinese red cross claimed that 180–2,600 civilians; ~50 soldiers and policemen were killed. However, the red cross retracted this statement after pressure from the government.

-Eyewitnesses claim that they saw soldiers removing bodies from the scene by the bus loads. Even people who weren't dead but badly wounded were taken away. Lots of people are missing and unaccounted for.

-To this day in China, the government suppresses information about the incident and no one really talks about it since its frowned upon.

If anyone is interested in watching the documentary its called [Documentary] Tiananmen Square Massacre 1989 in China and it was uploaded by Francisco Alvarez.

Its 1hr and 18mins long

Just be warned that there's graphic footage and photos of people getting shot, being burned to death, hung, beaten to death, and getting ran over by tanks.

"Man, who'd have guessed something with fucking 'massacre' in its name would be brutal?"
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DiesMortis posted...

"Man, who'd have guessed something with fucking 'massacre' in its name would be brutal?"

Never forget the Bowling Green Massacre
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There's that incredible video of a man standing up to block a tank by himself.
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Always been interested in this, thanks for the recommendation.
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DiesMortis posted...

"Man, who'd have guessed something with fucking 'massacre' in its name would be brutal?"

boston massacre

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One more detail you forgot.

The chinese government sent bills for the bullets used to the families of those that were massacred.
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Darkman124 posted...

The video is a lot more powerful than the picture. The tank tries to nudge him out of the way but he just refuses to move. So the tank backs up and tries going around him and he steps aside to keep standing in front of the tank.

To this day we literally don't know who he is. Just some ordinary guy walking home with bags of groceries.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeFzeNAHEhU
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Ex-Kefiroth posted...

The Chinese government are a contemptible lot.

Communism is one of the worst things ever. Yes.
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I'm very proud of my country (Canada) for doing our part in smuggling out tapes and stuff of the massacre
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@ChromaticAngel posted...

@Darkman124 posted...

The video is a lot more powerful than the picture. The tank tries to nudge him out of the way but he just refuses to move. So the tank backs up and tries going around him and he steps aside to keep standing in front of the tank.

To this day we literally don't know who he is. Just some ordinary guy walking home with bags of groceries.

Whats really messed up is that the government later used that footage as "proof" that the PLA was using restraint.

Steelix500 posted...

@ChromaticAngel posted...

@Darkman124 posted...

The video is a lot more powerful than the picture. The tank tries to nudge him out of the way but he just refuses to move. So the tank backs up and tries going around him and he steps aside to keep standing in front of the tank.

To this day we literally don't know who he is. Just some ordinary guy walking home with bags of groceries.

Whats really messed up is that the government later used that footage as "proof" that the PLA was using restraint.

he was killed later on
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My high school world history teacher years ago taught the daughter of one of the protesters and the teacher convinced the parent to come speak to students every year about it. It was kinda wild. She talked about how everyone was smoking constantly to offset the hunger and how nobody, not even people there at the time, knows who the guy in front of the tank was.
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@G_G posted...

Steelix500 posted...

@ChromaticAngel posted...

@Darkman124 posted...

The video is a lot more powerful than the picture. The tank tries to nudge him out of the way but he just refuses to move. So the tank backs up and tries going around him and he steps aside to keep standing in front of the tank.

To this day we literally don't know who he is. Just some ordinary guy walking home with bags of groceries.

Whats really messed up is that the government later used that footage as "proof" that the PLA was using restraint.

he was killed later on

Even though there's no proof I don't doubt it one bit. Apparently the two "civilians" who dragged him away are undercover cops. What gives it away is the method they restrain him; left arm pinned behind the back and a grip on the back of the neck.

@_Raich_ posted...

My high school world history teacher years ago taught the daughter of one of the protesters and the teacher convinced the parent to come speak to students every year about it. It was kinda wild. She talked about how everyone was smoking constantly to offset the hunger and how nobody, not even people there at the time, knows who the guy in front of the tank was.

Wow, what a great opportunity!