China downplays Marxist moment
Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific editor | May 04, 2009
Article from:
The Australian
NINETY years ago today, 3000 students gathered in front of the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing to protest against the terms of the Versailles Treaty, which transferred the German rights in Shandong province to Japan after World War I.
This was a turning point in China's modern history, which culminated in the development of the Communist Party that has ruled the country for 60 years.
But China's leaders today are nervous about celebrating this seminal event, and have thus transformed it into the more mundane China Youth Day.
During the May 4 movement, students filled the streets, and attracted workers and business people in Shanghai to go on strikes, shouting slogans such as "Struggle for our sovereignty, get rid of the traitors at home".
The movement, which helped promote Marxist ideas, spread through two-thirds of China's provinces and most of its major cities. The Chinese representatives at the peace talks refused to sign the treaty as a result, and the few students in France became especially militant.
The events of 20 years ago helped shape the guarded manner in which the party today acknowledges the May 4 movement's significance.
More than 100,000 people, students and others, marched through Beijing on May 4, 1989, intensifying the protests that had already been under way for some months. Rallies were also held in other parts of China.
The secretary-general of the Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, who, after troops were brought in to quash the protests on June 4, was placed under house arrest until he died in 2005, indicated the anxiety of the leadership on May 4 by denying, to an Asian Development Bank meeting, that China was in "turmoil".
As the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre on June 4 approaches, the Government is especially determined to downplay the value of all protest movements, even that of May 4, 1919. On Saturday, in advance of China Youth Day, President Hu Jintao urged young Chinese to embrace "patriotism, diligence and devotion", to rejuvenate the Chinese nation.
"The best way for modern young people to remember the (May 4) movement and the forerunners is to work persistently with the whole nation for the progress of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics," he said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25422381-25837,00.html
Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific editor | May 04, 2009
Article from:
The Australian
NINETY years ago today, 3000 students gathered in front of the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing to protest against the terms of the Versailles Treaty, which transferred the German rights in Shandong province to Japan after World War I.
This was a turning point in China's modern history, which culminated in the development of the Communist Party that has ruled the country for 60 years.
But China's leaders today are nervous about celebrating this seminal event, and have thus transformed it into the more mundane China Youth Day.
During the May 4 movement, students filled the streets, and attracted workers and business people in Shanghai to go on strikes, shouting slogans such as "Struggle for our sovereignty, get rid of the traitors at home".
The movement, which helped promote Marxist ideas, spread through two-thirds of China's provinces and most of its major cities. The Chinese representatives at the peace talks refused to sign the treaty as a result, and the few students in France became especially militant.
The events of 20 years ago helped shape the guarded manner in which the party today acknowledges the May 4 movement's significance.
More than 100,000 people, students and others, marched through Beijing on May 4, 1989, intensifying the protests that had already been under way for some months. Rallies were also held in other parts of China.
The secretary-general of the Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, who, after troops were brought in to quash the protests on June 4, was placed under house arrest until he died in 2005, indicated the anxiety of the leadership on May 4 by denying, to an Asian Development Bank meeting, that China was in "turmoil".
As the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre on June 4 approaches, the Government is especially determined to downplay the value of all protest movements, even that of May 4, 1919. On Saturday, in advance of China Youth Day, President Hu Jintao urged young Chinese to embrace "patriotism, diligence and devotion", to rejuvenate the Chinese nation.
"The best way for modern young people to remember the (May 4) movement and the forerunners is to work persistently with the whole nation for the progress of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics," he said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25422381-25837,00.html
