This was the day. Twenty-five years ago, Beijing time, the order was given: Clear the Square. At 4 am the lights were cut and Tienanmen was plunged into darkness. As protesters sang The Internationale, People's Liberation Army troops poured out of the spotlit entrance to the Great Hall of the People. Troops converged on the Square from all directions of the compass.
And the Square was cleared.
One thousand Chinese, peacefully protesting for democracy, were killed. The soul of China is survival. The Chinese Communist Party saw the Beijing Spring protests as a threat to its survival and if to it, then to China itself. The Square was cleared, the CPC survived. And survival survived as the soul, "the animating principle," of the Chinese nation.
The Tienanmen Square Massacre, June 4, 1989.
Stand up, damned of the Earth
Stand up, prisoners of starvation
Reason thunders in its volcano
This is the eruption of the end.
Of the past let us make a clean slate
Enslaved masses, stand up, stand up.
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be all.
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race. :|
There are no supreme saviours
Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune.
...
The State oppresses and the law cheats.
...
Peace among us, war to the tyrants!
Let the armies go on strike,
Stocks in the air, and break ranks.
If they insist, these cannibals
On making heroes of us,
They will know soon that our bullets
Are for our own generals.
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race. :|
