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In regard to my last post about the Tiananmen Square
massacre, I report some information that I just ran across on Quartz. You can examine
it in the context of my previous remarks. It offers an insight into Deng Xiaoping's mindset.
First:
“Two
hundred dead could bring 20 years of peace to China,” former Chinese leader
Deng Xiaoping was quoted as saying in recently declassified documents. His
words were spoken weeks ahead of the bloody military crackdown on student
protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Second, and also of interest, was the view of Lee Kuan Yew, the
founding father of modern Singapore:
The
declassified papers also revealed Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew’s
stance on the crackdown. During a meeting with ambassador Donald in July 1989,
Lee said he was puzzled why the student protesters decided to escalate their
general demands for political reform to directly attacking Deng, which he
called “an act of folly.”
Lee
also predicted that a military crackdown was Deng’s only option to put an end
to the students’ resistance, something he “felt in his bones as a Chinese.”
2 comments:
A military crackdown was Deng's only option, and he exercised it.
Five years later, President Bill Clinton rewarded this savagery with Most Favored Nation trading status so we could avail ourselves of cheap labor and a gigantic consumer market.
So much for principles.
Lesson learned: Start with a constitution that defines individual rights before you test them against your leaders. Being a peaceful protestor definitely doesn't make you safe from execution.
Slightly different, but the only thing I can see comparable in America is the white man's fantasy that the Second Amendment is about hoarding guns to protect themselves against a tyrannical government.
Such patriots never remember to worry that most people will consider gun-hoarders more scary than the government.
Also we really ought to be careful with legalized labels like "terrorist" which could potentially allows citizens lose their sixth amendment rights, detained without trial for indefinite periods of time. Jury nullification doesn't work if there's no trial.
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