Chinese students suddenly occupied Beijing’s Tiananmen Square for seven beautiful weeks in the Spring of 1989.
Millions more from all walks of life joined them.
Protesting tyranny, they demanded democracy and freedom of speech.
Then, 31 years ago to this very day, the Chinese government sent in tanks and soldiers, opening fire on citizens outside the square, killing thousands. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) followed up the massacre with arrests and lengthy prison terms for those committing the unspeakable crime of speaking out for freedom.
Fast-forward three decades and the ChiNazis in Beijing are currently engaged in snuffing out the civil liberties and democratic aspirations of the people in Hong Kong.*
In mainland China, the CCP has always squelched any mention of the Tiananmen Square massacre, but every year Hongkongers have held a vigil. Not this year. It has been banned.
The world should have learned two obvious lessons: (1) the Chinese people want freedom and democracy, and (2) the ‘Butchers of Beijing’ will brutalize to prevent it.
Far more powerful than in 1989, CCP tyrants now wield a much more effective police state against Chinese citizens.
Now is the time to honor the Tiananmen demonstrators, but clearing Lafayette Park of protesters so President Trump can walk to a church seems . . . disquieting.
Not a memorial.
And suggesting he might invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to engage the military in domestic policing? Trump’s defense secretary rightly opposes.
Comparisons to Tiananmen Square have not unreasonably been drawn.
The difference? Americans can revolt . . . peacefully, which our government cannot put down.
For the sake of the free world and all those — including 1.4 billion Chinese — in the unfree world, now is no time to abandon peaceful protest and political action for insurrection, riot, and military suppression.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* This is brazen violation of the 1997 turnover agreement made with Britain, of course.
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4 replies on “Too Many Tiananmens”
You could write about the U.S.
MPs are already in the streets, so invocation of the Insurrection Act would seem beside the point, wouldn’t it…..?
Since when are rioting, looting, vandalism and murder “peaceful protest”?
Since when is burning down a police station “peaceful protest”?
Reportedly the crowd was asked to disperse, in recognition of the pending curfew, imposed by the DC mayor, not the federal government. The crowd then reportedly began throwing bricks and frozen bottles of water at the police. The police then moved to move the crowd out. No serious injuries. Didn’t stop CNN’s Jim Acosta from repeatedly reporting that the demonstrators were beaten and gassed. Which was not true.