The Global Times writes about June 4

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The English version of The Global Times (环球时报) newspaper yesterday published an opinion piece titled “Evolution of Chinese intellectuals’ thought over two decades”.

The lead is buried, but the story has broken state-owned Chinese media’s silence on what they call ‘June 4 incident’:

People were less confident about China’s future in the 1980s, explained Zhang Yiwu, a Peking University literature professor.

Irritated by China’s pathetic economy and the ultra-left thinking left over from the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), many Chinese intellectuals shared a common pursuit of freedom and democracy in the 1980s, “an era of enlightenment on democracy for intellectuals”, Xiao Gongqin, a major spokesman for cultural nationalism and a history professor at Shanghai Normal University, wrote in his Chinese book Thoughts Differentiation among Modern Chinese Intellectuals and Its Political Influence.

“The youth in universities were all drinking in a variety of knowledge and reading various books,” Zhang Liping, researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the Global Times.

At that time, information on different societies and lectures on new concepts filled every corner of campus noticeboards. Books and debates circulated among students. Especially popular were arguments over “isms” including existentialism, humanitarianism, liberalism, capitalism and Marxism.

“Uncertainty was the most obvious characteristic of that period,” said Zhang Yiwu. He noted that the intellectuals at that time chose Western thoughts “at random”.

“It [the ’80s] was the age of enlightenment and almost a turning point for China’s political transition,” said Chen Zhigang, former Washington bureau chief of Hong Kong-based Sing Tao Daily.

June 4 Incident broke out in 1989 and after that intellectuals in China “switched to silence”, according to Zhang Liping.

“Intellectuals no longer discussed ‘isms’ publicly, and shifted their focus to academic issues,” she said. “Some people worried that China might slip backward.”

Such worries were dispelled three years later in 1992 by Deng Xiaoping’s visit to South China.

“Deng’s speech reignited people’s hope and restored their confidence,” said Zhang Liping. In his speech, Deng emphasized the importance of economic reform and open-mindedness…

…“People are more mature now,” said Zhang Yiwu. “They no longer think Western thoughts are China’s ultimate goal.”

Several times during her interview, Zhang Liping emphasized that “radical reform or revolution is extremely insecure and does not work in China.”

Meantime, the British magazine Standpoint has published a piece by Jonathan Mirsky, a journalist who is fond of mentioning that he is persona non grata in China. The article includes the following paragraph:

To this day, if the word Tiananmen appears on the Chinese internet, whoever has used or accessed it can expect a knock on the door and may join the dozens of Tiananmen activists still in China’s jails and labour camps.

This ridiculous exaggeration can be disproved by anyone by searching for the word “Tiananmen” or the word “天安门” on Baidu.com or Google.cn, and it shows how deeply out of touch China specialists can get when they never visit China:

Mirsky’s assumption that “Tiananmen” itself refers to the incident inside China is a notion unique to the Western media. In the Mainland, the word refers to a central location in Beijing that has many, many associations beyond the 1989 events. For many Chinese people, the first association of the the word is the patriotic song “I love Beijing, Tiananmen” (我热爱北京天安门).

However, there has been some good writing on the 20 year anniversary published in the Western media; see the links below.

Links and Sources
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