On June 4, 2021, the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Chris King, Chinese expert and senior Research Fellow for the MEMRI Chinese Media Studies Project, who participated actively in the student protests in China in 1989, wrote an analysis in English and in Chinese, stating that even though the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned the June 4 commemoration, the spirit of that "peaceful" and "democratic" student movement lives on. King wrote: "Although there is no place to commemorate the June 4 Massacre in China, this magnificent democratic movement is an enlightenment, an epic, a goddess of democracy and an eternal monument of China!"
Below is the analysis:
Today is the 32nd anniversary of the June 4th Tiananmen Incident. From the night of June 3 to the early morning of June 4, 1989, the authoritarian regime of the CCP stunned the world by dispatching combat troops and brutally suppressing the students and Beijing residents who were peacefully petitioning and protesting for democracy and freedom in Tiananmen Square in front of the cameras of the world media, killing hundreds or thousands of people in what came to be called the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
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Xi Jinping Chose To Intensify His Efforts To Monopolize Power And Engage In Dictatorship
This year marks the centenary of the founding of the CCP. At the moment of June 4, the CCP, which has the world's second largest GDP and the world's largest army with more than two million active soldiers, is on guard for all possible dangers and has completely blocked the public from even minor commemoration and remembrance of June 4.
Hong Kong, the only place in China where the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre was freely and openly mourned for more than three decades, has lost its space for freedom under Xi Jinping. "One Country, Two Systems" is dead and "One Country, One System" is on its way. Not only did the CCP begin a harsh crackdown on Hong Kong's liberal and democratic activists, it also banned June 4 commemoration in Hong Kong for the first time and closed the city's June 4 Museum.
I am afraid only the seemingly powerful CCP regime knows why it is so timid and cowardly.
Before and after Xi Jinping came to power, many people had hoped that, because he did not directly participate in it, he would rehabilitate the June 4 Incident and apologize to the Chinese people, unloading the historical burden of the CCP regime and legitimize his administration. Unfortunately, he chose to intensify his efforts to monopolize power and engage in dictatorship.
June 4 was a major turning point in the history of communist rule of China. If there were illusions about the good and evil nature of the CCP before the Tiananmen Massacre, they have been completely shattered since then. The Chinese people have woken up completely and have a new understanding of the brutality of this party and its regime. They have despaired of the rule of the CCP. The Chinese people see clearly that the CCP is an evil mafia-style regime that takes maintaining its power and dominance at all times and in all places as its highest political pursuit, and that it will pay any price for that, even if it involves shedding people's blood and sacrificing countless lives.
The brutal, bloody, and horrific scenes of June 4 directly accelerated the dramatic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, which eventually led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the successful democratic transformation of the former communist bloc countries in Eastern Europe.
The June 4 Tiananmen Massacre Was A Heinous Crime Committed By Deng Xiaoping
The June 4 Tiananmen Massacre was a heinous crime committed by Deng Xiaoping. His predecessor, Mao Zedong, the CCP's great dictator, would not have even dared to crack down on the people so brazenly with machine guns and tanks, but Deng Xiaoping not only did it; he did it resolutely and ruthlessly, in a cold-blooded manner. After June 4, Deng Xiaoping, a master of power and strategy, knew his guilt was great, so he adopted an approach of "hiding our capacity and biding our time," and succeeded in winning the "understanding and trust" of Western leaders with such a big hoax. He quickly escaped Western sanctions and kept his power and the ruling position of the CCP. In this sense, Deng's successors, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and now Xi Jinping, have all been beneficiaries of the massacre.
Deng Xiaoping ruled the Chinese people with the rigor of communism after June 4, and developed the Chinese economy with the system of capitalism, hoping to use money to numb the nerves of the people and make June 4 be forgotten as soon as possible. Thirty-two years have passed, as a result of the strict blockade of the CCP regime and its strict control of the Internet, the younger generation of China is unable to learn about the June 4 Massacre, but the torch is passed from generation to generation: June 4 must not be forgotten.
A few days ago, the CCP Political Bureau conducted a collective study. Xi Jinping was obviously dissatisfied with the fact that the CCP under his control lacks discursive power in the world, and that a good story of China was not being told in other countries, especially in the Western world.
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However, how can such a communist regime, that madly slaughtered its own people with the so-called People's Army, that has so far shown no remorse for the June 4 Massacre and that has taken the attitude of "no acknowledgement, no admission of guilt, no apology, no reparation" to it, that treats its people like dirt, and that is increasingly repressing and controlling them, tell a good story about China, and how can it possibly have a good story to tell?
A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Cangan Boulevard in Tiananmen Square, on June 5, 1989. (Source: AP/Jeff Widener)
The June 4 Spirit Lives On
China's dysfunctional society, its authoritarian and corrupt politics, its huge wealth gap, its high cost of living, and its lack of human rights in employment have led young people to find their own way into silent protest and resistance.
Just a few days ago, the CCP introduced a new three-child policy, which was met with widespread ridicule and rebuke by most of the public. How can young couples raise so many children in a country where ordinary people are struggling to earn a decent living for themselves?
Against this background is, since last year, the doctrine of China's Lying Flat-ism (aka tangpingnism躺平主义- Tǎng píng zhǔyì), which is not only a feature of the Internet age, but also a new form of June 4th Movement in which China's younger generation is dissatisfied and desperate with the reality and adopts a non-violent and uncooperative approach to the Chinese Communist authorities.
Nowadays, many people talk about the students' missteps during the June 4 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement and the radical intransigence that followed, calling for reflection. However, we believe that no matter how childish and immature the student leaders were, how they did not understand the top-level power operations of the CCP, how they did not know when to best leave off, eventually leading to the tragedy, it was, after all, a peaceful, orderly, passionate but generally rational democratic movement. The CCP, with its absolutely superior resources, had no reason whatsoever to use its field army, which should have been used to resist foreign enemies, to march into Beijing and slaughter unarmed students and citizens!
Although there is no place to commemorate the June 4 Massacre in China, this magnificent democratic movement is an enlightenment, an epic, a goddess of democracy and an eternal monument of China!
Today, we overseas Chinese are lighting candles together, praying for our compatriots who lost their lives 32 years ago, and sending endless thoughts of sorrow.
The June 4 spirit lives on, and it is here.
*Chris King is Senior Research Fellow for the MEMRI Chinese Media Studies Project.
Below is the analysis in Chinese:
中国已无纪念六四之地，但英雄火种传遍世界
今天是六四事件32周年的纪念日。1989年6月3日晚至6月4日清晨，中共独裁政权在北京出动野战部队，在全世界媒体的镜头前，血腥镇压了在天安门广场为争取民主和自由而进行和平请愿和抗议示威的学生和市民，导致数百至数千人丧生，酿成震惊全球的六四大屠杀事件。
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今年是中共成立一百年。六四当下，坐拥世界排名第二GDP，拥有两百多万现役军人，号称世界规模最大军队的中共却如临大敌，完全封杀了民众对六四这个日子哪怕一丁点儿的纪念和追思。
香港，这个三十多年来中国唯一可以自由公开悼念六四天安门事件的地方，在习近平治下，已经丧失了自由的空间，一国两制已经死亡，一国一制正在路上。中共不仅开始严厉镇压香港的自由民主人士，而且首次禁止纪念六四，封闭六四纪念馆。
貌似强大的中共为何胆怯懦弱至此，恐怕只有中共当局自知。
习近平上台执政前后，由于他本人没有直接参与六四屠杀，有不少人曾经希望习近平主政后平反六四，向国民道歉，以此卸下中共政权的历史包袱，为自身的执政提供合法性。但是很遗憾，他选择是变本加厉进行大权独揽，大搞独裁专制的道路。
在中共统治中国之后的历史中，六四事件是一个重大的转折点。如果说六四屠杀之前，世人对中共的善恶属性还心存幻想，六四事件之后，这种幻想则完全破灭。中国人民彻底觉醒，对这个政党和政权的残暴有了全新的领教和认识，对中共的统治已然绝望。中国人民看清楚中共是一个邪恶的黑帮政权，不论何时何地都以维持自己的权力和统治地位为最高政治诉求和利益目标，为此可以付出任何代价，令人民喋血，牺牲无数也在所不惜。
六四的残暴、血腥和恐怖的场景，直接加速了苏联和东欧的剧变，最终导致了苏联的解体，东欧前共产集团国家成功实现民主转型。
六四屠杀是邓小平犯下的滔天罪行。他的前任、中共的大独裁者毛泽东甚至都不敢明目张胆地用机枪和坦克镇压民众，但是邓小平他不仅做了，而且做得决绝冷血，残酷无情。六四后，精于权谋的邓小平自知罪孽深重，用韬光养晦的所谓韬略虚晃一枪，用一场世纪骗局成功骗取了西方国家领导人的"理解和信任"，很快逃过了西方的制裁，保住了自己的权力和共产党的执政地位。从这个意义上讲，邓小平之后的江泽民、胡锦涛和现在的习近平当局都是那次屠杀事件的受益者。
世人如果看不到这一点，对中共的认知就会发生重大的偏差。
邓小平在六四后用共产主义的严苛统治人民，用资本主义的体系发展经济，希望用金钱麻痹民众的神经，让六四尽快被遗忘。三十二年过去了，由于中共政权的严密封锁以及网络信息的控制，中国的年轻一代对六四屠杀缺乏了解的途径和机会，但是口传心授，薪火相传还在，六四必定无法被遗忘。
前几天，中共政治局进行集体学习，党魁习近平对中共缺乏话语权，中国的故事没有被讲好显然很不满意。但是，一个用所谓人民的军队疯狂屠杀自己人民的中共政权，一个迄今为止对六四没有丝毫悔意，不承认、不认错、不道歉、不赔偿的政权，一个视人民为草芥的政权，而且对民众的压制控制变本加厉的政权，如何讲好中国的故事，怎么会有好的故事可讲？
中国当今社会畸形发展，政治专制腐败，贫富差距巨大，生活成本高昂，就业毫无人权保障，已经导致年轻人用自己的方式进行无声的抗议和抵抗。
前几天，中共刚刚推出了一对夫妇可生三个孩子的新政策，但是得到的回应是绝大多数民众普遍的嘲弄和斥责。一个普通民众连养活自己都困难的国家，如何让年轻夫妇生养众多子女？
在这种背景下，躺平和躺平主义从去年开始应运而生，这既是网络时代的特征，也是年轻一代对现实不满和绝望，对中共当局的非暴力不合作式的新型六四运动。
现在有不少人谈论当年六四天安门民主运动中学生们的策略失当以及后期的激进不妥协，要求进行反思。但是我们认为，无论学生领袖如何稚气未脱和不成熟，如何不懂得中共高层的权力运作，如何没有见好就收，如何最终导致惨剧的发生，但是归根结底，那是一场和平的、有秩序的、充满激情但又总体理性的民主运动，手中掌握着绝对优势资源的中共政权，无论如何没有理由动用本应该用于抵御外敌的野战军杀进北京，屠杀手无寸铁的学生和市民！
虽然中国的大地上已经没有了允许纪念六四的立锥之地，但是这场波澜壮阔的民主运动，是一场启蒙，是一部史诗，是永远伫立的民主女神像和华夏丰碑！
今天，我们海外的华人共同点燃一支蜡烛，为三十二年前失去生命的同胞祈祷，寄上无尽的哀思。六四永存，它就在这里。
