Here's another one from the same poet:

""The loss of memory by a nation is also a loss of its conscience"

As a Chinese, I never forget the massacre, and always wish I could have access to the truth.

Excellent stuff, Cam.

I gave special attention to the people of Hong Kong for this year's anniversary on my site, too.

Interesting perspective and well-written Cam. It was indeed a sad day. My family talks about it, but only behind closed doors, yet they wonder why nothing changes.

I found the blog after following you on Twitter. I'll stop in often.

TianAnMen – the lesson we never forget! June 2, 2006

Every year, when the hot summer arrives in the Chinese capital, middle ages people, trolling and playing on the largest square in the world, under the Gate of the Heavenly Peace, seem to pause a second or two, as if they try to ponder upon the turbulent event that shook the nation and the world.

To their minds and senses, the sound of the gunfire, the stinky smell of the burning bodies of our beloved People Liberation Army soldiers, the iron will of our revolutionary leader Deng Xiaoping, the outrage of Chinese people at the white devils’ last attempt to strangle our young People’s Republic of China, the utmost disgust at the handful of Chinese traitors from Hongkong and Taiwan, the unbearable pains from witnessing some misguided young students, awed and blinded by the western hypocritical lifestyle…are still piercing their memory.

The MODERN CHINESE always remember that fateful lesson, on the fateful day of June 4, 1989. Like many other historical lessons throughout the long Chinese history, the lesson of TianAnMen political chaos has taught them how to be strong and vigilant against all sabotage attempts, internal and external, how to avoid mistakes, how to be firm and steady in the strategic course of advancement toward building a modern China, according to the Chinese plan blueprint. The MODERN CHINESE look straight into the nature of the event, not because of the western constant annual propaganda attacks on the occasion, but to keep the lesson fresh and relevant to the current generation, so to prevent the chaos to ever happen again.

To analyze the TianAnMen event, the MODERN CHINESE, as matter of scientific approach, always consider it from 360 degree angles and through two situational layers (domestic and international). I would limit my analysis on 4 dimensions (internal proponents, internal opponents, internal neutral, external opponents) and two above situational layers.

Let’s fast rewind our time machine to 1978.

China just came out of the internal most destructive Cultural Revolution and exhausted war efforts, both logistical and military, supporting Vietnamese in their fight for their country unification.

Mr. Deng Xiaoping, after the third fall from power, came back and was barely able to consolidate the central government power in his hands. The national economy was all but ruined: peasants were not motivated to work due to the collective system of communes; workers were idle because the central government was bankrupt with no resource to invest. The old social structure and morale was completely turned upside down. The country was totally at loss as what direction to go from the cross road.

Externally, the Vietnamese Communist ungrateful hooligans have been pursuing an anti China policy in concert with Soviet Union and as consequence, expelling million of Chinese ethnics from Vietnam. The border war between Vietnam and Cambodia broke out. Americans was out of South East Asia. They were forced to abandon their hope of contain China from the south, but not their life long dream of recovering the “lost China”.

Mr. Deng Xiaoping thought that it was urgent for China to first re-initiate his economic reform that he once nurtured twenty some years ago, when the Chinese revolution priority was given to obtain the total national security and hence caused the delay of his economic reform implementation. He started with disbanding the rural communes and dividing land for peasants who from now on would be directly responsible for farming their allocated lots.

The results were astounding: food started to fill the markets and stores shelves, living conditions for Chinese peasants improved many folds over a very short time. However, the economy in cities was still lumping along due to the lack of fund injection from the government empty coffer. The city resentment over peasants’ better life improvement began.

Then came the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in December 1979, followed by the Soviet Union invasion of Afganistan in 1979. Now instead of the US containment, it was Soviet Union turn to try to encircle China.

Following Mr. Mao Zedong sacred principle of defending the Chinese national security at any cost, faithful to Mr. Mao trust when he recalled Mr. Deng to power, Mr. Deng determined to launch a daring offensive to break the enemy encirclement.

Mr. Deng first toured the South East Asia countries to consult for a mutual plan to counter the Vietnamese ambition to create an “Indochina Federation” dominated by them. ( See the “From the Third to the First” – the Biography by Lee Kwan Yew.)

Then he made the first visit (by a head of Chinese nation) to the United States of America. There Mr. Deng informed Jimmy Carter that China WILL attack Vietnam to punish them for the naked invasion of Cambodia.

Mr. Carter was worried that Soviet Union might get involved due to the Vietnamese-Soviet Union Security and Friendship Treaty signed a few months earlier by Vietnamese General Secretary Le Duan and Soviet General Secretary Bregeniev. Mr. Deng ensured Mr. Carter that the military offensive would be limited in scope, that He knew Russian and was ready for any possible ensuing events. Mr. Carter, persuaded by his National Security Advisor Brgenieski(spell?), reluctantly went along.

Mr. Deng, before leaving, made a famous statement that left a lasting echo in the mind of the Americans: ”We Chinese mean every word we say!”

The overwhelming Chinese attack on the prickly Vietnamese along its entire borders on February 17, 1979 caught them completely surprised. This was the first time since the Vietnam War that the Vietnamese had to declare a general national mobilization.

(Vietnam never felt a need to have the general national mobilization even at the peak of the Vietnam War. This shows how scared the Vietnamese were, in the face of the Chinese attack and the total inaction of the Soviets. I happened to be there at the night of the attack and can vividly recall the ghostly eerie silence in the Vietnamese cities, contrary to the triumph noisy celebration atmosphere in 1975.)

From then on, China coordinated with ASEAN countries, the US and the world to carry out the crippling total economic embargo on Vietnam and Soviet Union, that brought Vietnamese economy to the brink of collapse and the demise of the “Evil Empire” – Soviet Union latter on.

Even when the Vietnamese accepted the Chinese conditions for reconciliation to withdraw their troops from Cambodia and came to China many years latter to plead their wrongdoing, they were met by Mr. Jiang Zeming in NanNing, a provincial capital of Guangxi, not in Beijing, the national capital.

(That is a slap in the Vietnamese naughty face by their benevolent Big Sister China that they WILL remember for many years to come. See “The dragons entangled” by K. Chandra)

After accomplishing the total national security by breaking the Vietnamese ambition and Soviet Union proxy war against China, now Mr. Deng could turn back to his most important economic reform program that had been repeatedly interrupted by the numerous external sabotage forces.

The national 4 modernizations where military modernization is ranked LAST, i.e no money for new weapons and the Chinese military had to work to feed itself, were to be in full throttle.

Mr. Deng priority was to liberate the peasant’ production potential first in order to feed the starving China’s huge population, then to open up the country various sectors for foreign capital investment and technology in order to jump start the new industrialization of China.

Then, combining the foreign technology and capital with Chinese cheap labor, China was to boost the export of Chinese goods to the world. By doing this, Mr. Deng hoped that the process would help solve China multiple strategic problems simultaneously: food, job, hard currency, trade, global market share…

He emphasized to the Chinese people that without “reform and opening up”, Chinese nation has only “si lu yi tiao” – the road to total destruction!

Mr. Deng Xiaoping brilliant strategy was to be carried out with the pragmatic method “crossing unfamiliar river by feeling stones”, meaning by experimenting various unfamiliar new means and ways, with a practical undiscriminating attitude “the good cat is the one that catches mice”, meaning to be open-minded to any progressive and useful ideas no matter where they come from.

This novel and innovative ideas were not completely comprehended within the very inner circle of the Chinese Communist Party, let alone the ordinary people in streets. Many Chinese leaders at the time were still stuck in either the obsolete “class struggle” mentality of the Cultural Revolution era, or the illusionary newly half-learnt capitalist theory. Most of them were either confused as what to do or literally paralyzed in their leadership roles. Faction conflict was abounding.

Mr. Deng had to explain patiently, repeatedly to every Chinese leader, from central government down to provincial government, that if they were to carry out the 4 modernizations successfully, they had to adhere to two steadfast principles: strong central government control and courageous open-minded reform policy.

He used his two hands pounding on table to emphasize his point: “One hand is the strong CCP leadership in guiding the overall China strategic policy, one hand is the wide open reform, open-door to modern world. If we close the door, we will get suffocated; If we open the door and some flies get in – meaning foreign sabotage -, we will deal with them by a strong hand.”

Mr. Deng wisely predicted the turbulence that China will have to face and experience as side effects of his strategy.

Two successive Chinese General Secretaries were selected by Mr. Deng to carry out the tasks. The MODERN CHINESE should appreciate how much difficulty that these two courageous men had to overcome to instruct the Chinese officials to do their jobs when they themselves had to learn on the job without any adequate modern economic training.

Inevitably, many mistakes and confusion took place. Factories closed because of lack of government fund and outdated products. Chinese peasants had chances to improve their life tremendously while the city dwellers felt the pain of the new market oriented policy: they had to field for themselves instead of relying on government pampering support from cradle to death.

I remembered how some students got “outraged” because the cafeteria had to raise the price of each food items a few cent?! Some state owned companies got sold for cheap, corruption was wide spread, discontent boiled.

The young students rushed to acquaint themselves with the new western literature that was flooding every street corner in cities. Their shallow understanding of the western world was the results of many years of close-door policy, the limitation of their lack of real life experience in the western world, their youthful impulsive fascination with the new western hypocritical ideas of “freedom and democracy”, their unrealistic expectation of fast improvement of Chinese economy and society, the hard facts of the transition period from a ruined, backward economy to a dynamic, market oriented one…

I still have the mix of feeling of amusement, disgust, and at the same time sympathy, compassion… toward those Chinese students when I listened to them parroting the US constitution, US Emancipation Declaration…without even a slight understanding that “Men were born equal” in American concept means “white Anglo-Saxon men were born equal”, not black men, not brown men, not yellow men! And even those “white men” were not born equal: the Irish, Italian were not equal with the Anglo-Saxon men in 18, 19 century America!

And these naïve Chinese young men were the easy targets for the western sabotage plan that the white devils have always had for China.

In addition to the turbulence inside China, the political storm was gathering over the Chinese northern border.

Soviet Union was at the brink of collapse economically due to many years of arm race with the West, the world economic embargo and bad economic management.

Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev was selected as new General Secretary of the Soviet Union with the task to reform its economy. Instead of focusing on the economic reform to improve the life of the Soviet people, Mr. Gorbachev started his reform from the top of the communist system – political reform. (This is a typical of the old and rigid Russian way of thinking, the lack of flexible and practical thinking.)

He decided to get rid of the communist system totally and adopt the western capitalist system without a slight idea HOW to implement it, i.e. what are the prerequisites for the new capitalist system.

He traveled to the west trying to convince them of the new Russian “goodwill” which, to the bewilder westerners, appeared “too good to be true”. So, to convince the skeptical Mr. Reagan – president of US at the time – Mr. Gorbachev traveled throughout the Eastern European allies telling them they were on their own and were “encouraged” to go the “western democratic way”.

Well, it did not take long for the communist governments of the whole Eastern European allies to collapse without the Soviet Union nuclear umbrella! First Poland, then Romania, then East Germany…fell like a house of cards.

Then Mr. Gorbachev came to China in June 1989 to sign a peace treaty with China, hoping that his presence would bring the same effects to China as to other former allies in the Eastern Europe. God bless China! Mr. Gorbachev almost succeeded, but not so fast!

Meanwhile, in China, Mr. Hu Yaobang, the first selected General Secretary died before accomplishing the transition tasks.

Mr. Zhao Zhiyang, the second selected General Secretary, also was running into the problems of balancing the economic reform measures and the political strict control for social stability. Mr. Zhao failed to understand that in order to go through the confusing and dynamic phases of the market oriented economy, he needed to heed Mr. Deng wise and firm guidance: social stability is the prerequisites for carrying out the reform and promoting western democratic ideas is the recipe for the social chaos.

Under the influence of the western “experts” and his own defective knowledge of modern economy, Mr. Zhao wobbled in his reform implementing: he allowed rampant social discontent - unavoidable in any transition society - , tolerated the disunity within the government and the CCP, overwhelmed by the difficulties and obstacles in reforming each economic segment.

All these weak points had been spotted and taken advantage of by various western intelligent agencies and governments. The British MI6 had at their disposal an army of Chinese agents from Hongkong that they cultivated and trained over 100 years of Hongkong colonization.

The American ambassador Winston Lord and his Chinese wife Betty had been busy establishing their own network of spies and saboteurs in China, with the help from Taiwan agents disguised as Taiwanese “business men”. If they could not succeed in taking control over China by brute force through Korea and Vietnam Wars, they will try again by “internal peaceful transition” method.

It was just matter of time when all the conflicts within the party, within the government, within various segments of society, Chinese traitors and the western sabotage plans would break out in open. All it needed is an opportunity, a spark. And that spark came at the TianAnMen square, during the procession in honor of Mr. Hu death anniversary, also coincided with Mr. Gobarchev visit.

Chinese students from various universities gathered together for a procession in Beijing, through TianAnMen Square carrying the portrait of Mr. Hu Yaobang.

They stopped in TianAnMen square and refused to disband. For weeks, they occupied the square and turn the sparkling clean square into a heap of human waste, stinking to the heaven.

Their demands changed over time: from the sorrows for the passing of Mr. Hu, to demands for government to eradicate the corruption, to “freedom and democracy” without understanding what it was, to removing and prosecuting the current Chinese Premier Li Peng, to bringing down the communist government…

Their occupation of the TianAnMen square prevented the Chinese government to conduct the state function: Mr. Deng Xiaoping was forced to move the welcoming ceremony intended for Mr. Gorbachev, into the Hall of People. This was one of the unprecedented humiliation to the modern Chinese government for its failure to have the normal and basic functionality.

The Chinese government was paralyzed because of infighting between Mr. Zhao faction who wanted to go “western democracy reform” and Mr. Li Peng faction who insisted to keep on the current path with the CCP firmly in control of the reform.

The Taiwan and Hongkong British agents were caught on tape distributing money, propaganda material, communication equipments…to Chinese students. The US reporters/agitators blatantly defied the international media rules and engaged in misinformation/distortion campaign to aggravate the situation and stir up even more unrest.

The whole country was in the state of total chaos resembling the Cultural Revolution just 13 years ago, at this very exact spot.

The debate within the Chinese government finally resolved the decision to crack down on the unrest. Mr. Zhao was ousted from the position of General Secretary. The martial law was declared, ordering everybody to clear the square.

Most people went home, leaving a few hundred students remained on the square. The so called “student leaders” ran away warned by their CIA handlers about pending government action.

But there was a number of people staying outside the square creating blockages to prevent PLA soldiers from entering the square. When a few PLA soldiers entered the square trying to peacefully disband the students, they were attacked and murdered brutally. Their bodies were burnt to crisp and hung on the overpass for all to see.

Mr. Deng Xiaoping had been in the command center all this time and calmly accessed the grave situation. All his life he had been fighting to kick out the Japs, the traitorous GuoMingDang JianJieShi troops with the Americans support, the western imperialists from North Korea, the prickly “invincible” Vietnamese out of Cambodia, the Soviets from northern China, in order to achieve the total national security for China from all those external threats.

He was not going to see the Chinese Nation to be destroyed by a handful of traitorous Chinese from Hongkong and Taiwan, by some naïve to stupid Chinese students, by some incompetent Chinese officials, under the manipulation of foreign devils. The failure of his comrades pained him. He fully understood each and every consequence of the decisive measures he was going to take. But for the future of the beloved China that he always claimed to be the faithful son of, He WILL take action!

The MODERN CHINESE should understand the gravity of the dangerous situation of China at the time in order to wholeheartedly appreciate the impact of Mr. Deng leadership.

He was only Chinese leader at the time that could have the total and convincing authority to order the Chinese PLA to take action on Chinese rebels, considering the confusion at the time by the army officers as what government officials should they listen to.

He was only Chinese leader at the time who had the clear vision as which direction China should go and what were the next steps that China should take.

He was the only Chinese leader at the time who had the whole blueprint for the modern China in the modern time!

He, as Mr. Mao ZeDong before facing the moment of life and death of China, never wobbled in his determination to carry out the Chinese revolution to the end: the Chinese NATIONAL INTEREST and New prosperous China.

It was “thousand pound of weight hanging on a hair thread”!

After the square was cleared out, China faced even more difficulty in refocusing on the 4 modernization tasks that Mr. Deng initiated.

The western governments started implementing many economic boycotts against China. They were frustrated at their failure to sabotage and take control over China through “peaceful democracy transition” and determined to stall the Chinese economic reform.

Many investment projects were postponed and cancelled. New foreign investment dried out. Various factions within Chinese leadership wanted to change the reform policy according to the new domestic and international conditions.

But Mr. Deng insisted that there would be NO changes to the economic strategy. On the contrary, he demanded that the pace of the economic reform should be quickened.

His tour of Southern China in 1991, in ShenZhen, had the powerful impact on the Chinese leaders’ psychic, from the central government to the provincial, township enterprises. This tour was Mr. Deng warning to all of them not to even think about anything else but to push forward the economic plan “reform and opening up” that Mr. Deng himself nurtured ever since he was toiling in a car plant in France half a century ago.

Mr. Deng single-handedly prodded both the “left” and the “right” factions within Chinese leadership to stay the course, forward and forward only!

Amazing! One 5-foot tall man commanded the whole one fifth of mankind on an unprecedented economic resurgence in history!

The MODERN CHINESE should understand all the dangers that China has gone through and how lucky it has been that at the very fateful moment of her possible imperil, there has been always a Chinese man who has lifted the “whole sky” over China, saving her from certain death.

But China can NOT afford to rely on only one man’s vision to save her. If China is to rely on luck and luck alone, she will run out of luck someday.

The MODERN CHINESE need to take on themselves the noble and heavy responsibility to carry on the mission to bring China to a new era of security and prosperity.

To do that, they need to be well equipped with the global knowledge, modern scientific approach, martial spirit of Mao ZeDong and the pioneer ambitions, with the sacred principle: Chinese NATIONAL INTEREST and justice for all.

I visited TianAnMen Square twice since 1989. Every time, I was there, looking up to the Gate of HEAVENLY PEACE, I felt tears filling up my eyes.

Oh, China! God bless thy under the HEAVENLY PEACE for eternity!