Apcs Then Ran Over Bodies Time and Time Again to Make
EDITORIAL: Tiananmen truly a massacre
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, when on June 3 and 4, 1989, the Chinese People'southward Liberation Army brutally suppressed pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing and surrounding areas.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) normally maintains a stony silence over the events that occurred on those two blood-soaked nights, and through a combination of aggressive censorship and harassment of victims' families has effectively airbrushed the event from the collective consciousness of the Chinese public.
An exception occurred on Sun, when Chinese Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe (魏鳳和), later delivering a saber-rattling speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, took a question from an audience member about the massacre.
Wei said that measures taken by the government to quell the "turbulence" were the "correct policy."
"The xxx years have proved that Red china has undergone major changes," he said, adding that because of the government'southward actions at that time, "China has enjoyed stability and development."
Wei's historical revisionism is concerning. It indicates that the party feels fully exonerated by China's meteoric economic ascension.
In a macabre illustration of Orwellian doublethink, the political party appears to believe that the encarmine crackdown, far from being a catastrophic misjudgement, was in fact beneficial to the country's development.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Recently uncovered information shows that the massacre was draconian, indiscriminate killing for which there can be no justification in a civilized guild.
A declassified diplomatic cable from and so-British ambassador to Cathay Alan Donald was published by Hong Kong news Web site HK01 in 2017. In the cablevision, Donald provided data passed on to him by a "reliable" source, who he attributed as a "shut friend" of a member of the Chinese State Quango — the country's highest administrative authority.
The source said that the killings were carried out by the 27th Group Army, made up of troops from Shanxi Province, who were "lx percent illiterate and are called primitives." They were kept without news for 10 days and were told they were taking part in an exercise.
In the first waves of attacks in areas away from Tiananmen Foursquare, unarmed and lightly armed soldiers from other units tried, unsuccessfully, to clear the crowds. The 27th's armored personnel carriers (APCs) then attacked, opening fire on the crowd — both civilians and soldiers — before running them over. The 27th was ordered to spare no one; even wounded soldiers were shot.
Donald said: "On arrival at Tiananmen ... students understood they were given one hour to get out the square, just after five minutes APCs attacked. Students linked artillery, merely [were] mown down past soldiers. APCs so ran over bodies time and time again to make 'pie' [and the] remains were collected past bulldozer. Remains were incarcerated and so hosed downwards drains."
He relayed barbaric scenes: Four wounded female students begged for their lives, merely were ruthlessly bayoneted; a mother was shot every bit she attempted to rescue her injured three-year-former daughter — six others tried to aid, just were also shot; army snipers "shot many civilians on balconies, street sweepers, etc, for target exercise."
He ended the cable: "Minimum estimate of noncombatant dead 10,000."
Previous estimates ranged from several hundred to more than 1,000.
In today'due south uncertain world, information technology has never been more than important that the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre be remembered. The CCP was then, and all the same is today, a vicious dictatorship with non i iota of respect for homo life.
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Source: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2019/06/04/2003716284
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