Today marks the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

June 4, 1989 and the events leading up to that moment are forbidden discussion in China.  37-years later the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will still target and seek the arrest of anyone who recognizes this monumental date in modern Chinese history.  As a few readers will remember, this date also personal to me.

[New Photographs Here]

Through the years CTH has remembered this date, noting the importance of that moment not only in China but also in the rest of the world who were watching events, trying to understand the student protest issues and also learning about the country that was beginning to break into a much larger modern world from the other side of the Pacific.

Part of the interest in communist China was driven by watching what was taking place in Eastern Europe, the collapse of communism.  Just five months after Tiananmen, in November 1989 the Berlin Wall came down, signaling the end to communism in Europe.  These months were fascinating for curious American Gen Xers who were witnessing an inflection point in history between two generations – and they could sense it.

For myself, June 4, 1989, also represented an awakening as I listened to several media broadcasts talk about the Chinese government response to Tiananmen as a “hard-right crackdown.”  No, that didn’t make sense.  On the left is bigger government, totalitarianism. On the political right is smaller government.  If the government was shutting down freedom and liberty protests, that’s bigger government – not smaller.

So, in reality, what I was witnessing was a “hard-left crackdown.”

…. But the media kept repeating, “hard right,” as if repeating it over and over was going to make reality bend in a different direction. They said it so much it was almost like they were trying to convince themselves.  I began thinking about things.  I kept my mouth shut and my ears open.  I began questioning things that were presented to me.  Suffice to say, I began waking up.

They looked like me.

Well, not like me per se’, but that thing in their eyes looked just like mine.

The banner in front of them read, “Liberty or death.”

They were a long way away.

I did not know them, but this was my tribe.

On the other side of the water, my tribe was trying to achieve the same thing.

Millions of Eastern European Gen-Xers also hopeful.

Big hair, same music, similar clothes but different languages.

It was like people from the same tribe who had been scattered all over the globe suddenly standing up in unison.

It was 37 years ago tonight when the Chinese government sent the Mongolian Army into Tiananmen Square to crackdown on the mostly student protestors.

It is against the law in China to recognize today, memorialize the dead, or even speak publicly of this bloody anniversary. Few people know the short and long-term political ramifications to this event which extended far beyond the borders of China.

Many people are familiar with this image:

However, not as many people are as familiar with the wide shot.

That’s some serious courage right there.

The June 4th, 1989, anniversary holds a great deal of personal significance for those who witnessed the events.  Many of us remember exactly where we were as the first reports started to leak out.

Few people know that most of the regular Chinese military refused orders to open fire on the protesting crowd. Hundreds of young Chinese military soldiers actually formed lines around the mostly student activists in an effort to protect them.

Chinese military general Xu Qinxian refused orders to deploy troops against the Beijing protests in May 1989. He was stripped from command of the elite 38th Group Army and imprisoned for five years.

The Chinese government eventually bypassed the regular army and instructed the Mongolian military divisions who carried out the orders.

No one really knows how many were killed, and even the families of the fallen were too scared to speak publicly.

Those who were lost live on in whispered memories of lore.

So many.

So young.

We remember.

…Then the tanks came….

“On June 4, the world marks 37 years since the Chinese Communist Party ordered its troops to attack thousands of peaceful demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square. Chinese students, workers, and other civilians who lost their lives had gathered to exercise their natural rights and demand democratic reforms and accountability for corruption. We remember their lives and honor their legacy. No amount of censorship can erase the past. Those who sacrificed to uphold their unalienable rights of free expression and peaceful assembly will be vindicated someday.”

~ Secretary of State Marco Rubio, June 4, 2026

Posted in Big Government, China, Communist, Uncategorized
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