I do think China owes its people a complete and open investigation into what happened on June 4 and the following days. I also find it embarrassing for the US to be demanding such an investigation at a time when we are stamping as “Classified” every document related to “extreme renditions” and the secret East European “terrorist containment camps” we’ve set up and NSA surveillance of everyday citizens, etc., etc.
China opposes the “rude interference” of the United States in calling for a full accounting of the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.
“The U.S. statement is a groundless criticism and attack on China,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao was quoted as saying in a statement.
The State Department issued a statement on Sunday, the 17th anniversary of the pro-democracy protests bloodily put down by Chinese troops, calling for a re-evaluation by China which has branded the protests subversive.
“The U.S. urges China to provide a full accounting of the thousands who were killed, detained, or went missing and of the government role in the massacre,” spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
China considers the incident history and closed to further questions.
About that last line – China may feel the story is “closed,” but history doesn’t work that way. WWII ended 61 years ago and we’re still examining it with a flood of new books each year, just as we still examine the fall of the Caesars. History is never closed. The only time anyone proclaims it so is when they have something to hide, when they’re guilty, when they want to cover up past sins.
1
By Matthew
Koizumi ought to consider declaring Japan’s World War II history “closed” next time he visits Yasukuni and see how well the Chinese take it.
P.S. Is there a link to the original story?
June 7, 2006 @ 4:06 am | Comment
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By richard
Wonderful point. Thanks for pointing out the “missing link.” It’s there now.
June 7, 2006 @ 4:22 am | Comment
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By Si
Exactly what I was going to say, Matthew
June 7, 2006 @ 6:01 am | Comment
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By Keir
If the Us is ‘rude’ concerning the massacre, what word best describes the CCP’s actions that precipitated such rudeness in the first place?
June 7, 2006 @ 6:14 am | Comment
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By Thomas
The thing is. It is true that the US has lost some moral ground. But it is not embarrassing for anyone…the US, Uzbekistan, or anyone else to ASK for an explanation of Tiananmen. In such a case, it would be uncool of the PRC (in my opinion) to dismiss the point with any sort of reference to recent US human rights violations. Why? Because that does not make their own violations any better.
Now if the PRC wants to SEPARATELY, come out and question the US’ human rights violations, they have every right to do so. Similarly, it would not be right of the US to say “yes, but remember Tiananmen”. One should never try to dismiss one’s own failings by pointing to the failings of another.
I welcome any criticism of the PRC government regarding Tiananmen. There should be more of them.
June 7, 2006 @ 8:06 am | Comment
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By bobby fletcher
Say, didn’t PBS Frontline’s “The Tank Man” report that Chinese government did investigate this, and released casualty figure of 240 some dead? Incidentally this figure is in-line with NSA intel estimate.
There are ohter sources vetting PBS, such as Gregory Clark’s article on pack journalism, and Columbia Journal Review’s TAM myth.
(Links are in my blog, feel free to check them out.)
June 7, 2006 @ 5:11 pm | Comment
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By bobby fletcher
Well guess what? We just did what China did. We slamed UN’s critique of us.
And the irony is UN’s criticism was “hypocrisy”.
June 7, 2006 @ 6:36 pm | Comment
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By richard
“bobby,” nice to see you back. You wouldn’t be related to Jessica Copeland or Really, would you?
June 7, 2006 @ 6:49 pm | Comment
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By Bing
“Koizumi ought to consider declaring Japan’s World War II history “closed” next time he visits Yasukuni and see how well the Chinese take it.”
What an irrelevant point!
Chinese government wants this part of history to be closed and hopes people can let it go. It doesn’t celebrate the bravery of PLA on 6.4. CCP may be stupid but on this issue they are at least not hypocritical.
June 8, 2006 @ 1:37 pm | Comment
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By bobby fletcher
(Richard, no relations with aforementioned entities. Check the IP log and your Paypal donation list, it should be obvious.)
Bing, every country have their “official narrative” of history. When was the last time we Americans celeberated things like Jim Crowe or Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
How about things we do celeberate? Did the celeberation of Lewis & Clark expedition focus on the fact it led to US government’s genocide and continued oppression of Native Americans?
One of the two dudes (Lewis?)became the chief archetect of our NA policy.
June 9, 2006 @ 11:00 am | Comment