20 Years After Tiananmen, China Defiant

(CBS/AP)  Chinese police aggressively deterred dissent on Thursday's 20th anniversary of the crackdown on democracy activists in Tiananmen Square, amid calls by Hillary Clinton and even Taiwan's China-friendly president for Beijing to face up to the 1989 violence.

An exiled protest leader - famous for publicly haranguing one of China's top leaders 20 years ago - was also blocked from returning home to confront officials over what he called the "June 4 massacre."

Uniformed and plainclothes police stood guard across the vast plaza that was the epicenter of the student-led movement that was crushed by the military on the night of June 3-4, 1989.

CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports that Tiananmen Square was open for tourists Thursday, but not to foreign journalists, including himself.

"We suddenly needed special permission, and authorities said that might take days," reports Petersen. "China's leaders want no publicity about this anniversary."

Plain clothes officers aggressively confronted journalists on the streets surrounding the square, cursing and threatening violence against them.

The extraordinary security moves come after government censors shut down social networking and image-sharing Web sites such as Twitter and Flickr, and blacked out foreign news channels such as CNN each time they aired stories about Tiananmen. Dissidents were confined to their homes or forced to leave Beijing, part of sweeping efforts to prevent online debate or organized commemorations of the anniversary.

In another sign of the government's unwavering hard-line stance toward the protests, the second most-wanted student leader from 1989 said he had been denied entry to the southern Chinese territory of Macau.

Wu'er Kaixi, in exile since fleeing China after the crackdown, traveled to Macau on Wednesday to turn himself in to authorities in a bid to return home. He told The Associated Press by phone he was held overnight at the Macau airport's detention center and that being denied entry on the Tiananmen anniversary was a "tragedy."

He returned to Taiwan later Thursday.

Wu'er rose to fame in 1989 as a pajama-clad hunger striker yelling at then-premier Li Peng at a televised meeting during the protests. Named No. 2 on the government's list of 21 most-wanted student leaders after the crackdown, he escaped and now lives in exile in the self-ruled island of Taiwan. An attempt to return home in 2004 was rebuffed when he was deported from the Chinese territory of Hong Kong.

Wu'er said in a statement issued through a friend that he wants to turn himself in to the Chinese authorities so he can visit his parents - who haven't been allowed to leave China.

The student leader who topped the most-wanted list, Wang Dan, was jailed for seven years before being expelled to the United States in 1998.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement Wednesday that China, as an emerging global power, "should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal."

In a statement marking the anniversary, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou urged China to lift the taboo on discussing the crackdown.

"This painful chapter in history must be faced. Pretending it never happened is not an option," Ma said in a statement issued Thursday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman attacked Clinton's comments as a "gross interference in China's internal affairs."

"We urge the U.S. to put aside its political prejudice and correct its wrongdoing and refrain from disrupting or underming bilateral relations," Qin Gang said in response to a question at a regularly scheduled news brifing.

Qin refused to comment on the security measures - or even acknowledge they were in place.

"Today is like any other day, stable," he said.

Beijing has never allowed an independent investigation into the military's crushing of the protests, in which possibly thousands of students, activists and ordinary citizens were killed. Young Chinese know little about the events, having grown up in a generation that has largely eschewed politics in favor of raw nationalism, wealth acquisition, and individual pursuits.

Authorities have been tightening surveillance of China's dissident community ahead of the anniversary, with some leading writers already under close watch or house arrest for months.

Ding Zilin, a retired professor and advocate for Tiananmen victims, said by telephone that a dozen officers have been blocking her and her husband from leaving their Beijing apartment.

In contrast to the repression on the mainland, tens of thousands of people were expected to attend an annual candlelight vigil in the former British colony of Hong Kong, which has maintained its own legal system and open society since reverting to Chinese rule in 1997.

[cbsnews_viewer]

Why shouldn't China be defiant - They watch what the US does, not what it says. Who is winning? They get the economic benefits, and brush away criticism. The US is too busy following a military policy that is expensive while Wal Mart is filled with 'Made-In-China". The Secretary of Treasury goes to China to keep them happy so they keep buying US debt in the form of Treasury Bills. Tibet, Ulgers in the North, Taiwan, Macau - show me where Chinese foreign policy has changed? Show me the great human rights advances? But nobody cares.
What is in it for the USA? Thomas L Friedman, NY Times (Lexus and Olive Tree) and the pro-Globalizationists tried to sell that its so great. California is 24 Billion in the hole, GM bankruptcy is ripping off pensioners for 65 cents on the dollar, and investors to 10 cents on the dollar. Chrysler is bankrupt. Show me how the great Politicians that where all for China trade helped the US or the Chinese domestically? If they helped them, its by the inch and not by the mile. Clinton and Bush 41 where all for it Bush 43/Obama both voted for the banker bailout - maybe Wal-Street didn't need to be bailed out and the US needed at a minimum, an embryonic Industrial Policy..

[wcreader]

--" ..In another sign of the government's unwavering hard-line stance toward the protests, the second most-wanted student leader from 1989 said he had been denied entry to the southern Chinese territory of Macau..." Is there a need for western media to enlarge safety measurement by Beijing? is 6/4 only two dimemsion story? we need some depth from media. Is it the time for some western media to self check and stop one-side, bias reporting?
6/4/89 is an event that had past many years, It was sad that lives (both Citizen and soldiers) had been lost in Beijing that year, 6/4 could be marked as the teenage growing pain of China in political reform, right or wrong, history will tell in the near future. Ask yourselves, see what they do and say today, do you trust those unstable and mature students; some of us may be one of them too? However, it is important to point out that both the Chinese Government and the Chinese people have learnt from event and had moved forward on the Chinese reform. Now, after 30 years of the reform and changes, one can see China have been transformed from a poor, isolated country in 70s and 80s to the 3rd or 4th world economy body after US, Japan and Germany today. Today, Chinese people are enjoying a much better life and today Chinese is more relax and has as many freedom as anyone in the western world, believe or not. Again there is a lot of room for China to continue to improve. It is sad that western media fail to see these processes? The same process had taken US 300 years to achieve. Some media continue to use extreme bias viewpoint to just making political attack. May be, A productive question to ask is for all, What have the government, the students and the media had done right in June 4? What need to be improved from the government to meet the people?s need, what is the right, duty and responsibility from the requesters leaders (students/workers)? What is the common goal and common ground for all? How can we work together to form a better SYSTEM for dialog, communication, Thus, to continue to improve to achieve a better free, fair society for all to live. To smooth the political reform. Notice, we should believe it is the best interest for the Students, citizens and the Chinese Government to do good, and to be good. No need to demonize any side.

[mjinba07]

stuart2000 at 3:51 PM : Jun 5, 2009 - you're right. We tend to forget our history, and I got carried away and did the very thing I hate when others do it.

[mjinba07]

Yes yes,corruption exists here too - as it does everywhere - The difference here being that unlike China we still have the power and the avenues to do something about it. Still... but not for long if we don't use those avenues.

cbs_bull had some good points, and we should all be outraged. We should be asking ourselves what kind of country do we want to live in, and where lies the responsibility for creating that, and for returning to some of the better practices that we had before.

We learned in the 1930's that allowing the financial industry to do what ever it wants leads to economic disaster.

From the Dust Bowl we learned that we can indeed impact the environment to the point where it won't sustain us.

From Nazi Germany we learned that a literate and capable, but uninformed and frightened, public can swallow just any horrid nonsense if it's presented in the right way at the right time.

We've learned, ever since the fur trade during our country's very inception, that unmitigated commerce will exploit any population or resource it can and run amok until it kills even itself.

We learned from Watergate that a) politicians will, if allowed, arrogantly act outside the law, and b) that ratcheting up polemic stands on either side of a hot issue only inflames the possibility of illegal activity for one side to reach its aims.

We learned from both Korea and Vietnam that we are entirely capable of getting in over our own heads, and that the damage from doing so lasts for generations.

We learned from the Bay of Pigs that a room full of like minded experts are capable of agreeing with each other until a decision is made to do something truly idiotic.

We learned from the Cuban Missile Crisis that in some instances diplomacy will pull us away from further disaster.

From the collapse of the Soviet Union we learned that a sick political system will eventually crumble under its own weight.

We learned from our own Native Americans that trying to pressure a different culture into living our favored way does not work, it only decimates that culture and makes the survivors miserable.


So. We're in a pickle again now and what are we going to do about it ???

[cbs_bull]

Interesting comparisons (part 4):

4> After 6.4, many reporters and citizens in China have been beaten or put into jail, some even lost their lives for telling the truth of 6.4 or for revealing illegal activities by corrupted government officials. Their websites have been shut down. They have been silenced.

After 9.11, the media and some journalists in the US censored themselves because they didn't want to be labeled as unpatriotic. One guy who did speak out the truth got retaliated by publishing his family member's CIA identity. A federal jury convicted a White House official for related felonies but the President took the jury conviction as a joke and asked the guy being released on the same day.

[cbs_bull]

Interesting comparisons (part 3):

3> The economy in China is booming. Many become very rich by bribing officials so that the government ignores hundreds of death each year in illegal mines, thousands of under age workers in sweat shops, and unwanted ingredients in foods for profit. Crooks and corrupted officials are enjoying piling cash at their homes. Very few are held responsible for these crimes.

The housing market in the US was booming and the country was occupied by wars and terrorists. Many corporate executives and crooks on the Wall street became very rich by inflating the market with derivatives, selling mortgages to those who couldn't afford, back-dating their stock options, hiding their profits in off-shore banks, awarding themselves with taxpayers' bail-out money, etc, etc. The US and world financial systems finally collapsed, leaving most financially responsible law?abiding citizens to suffer the consequences. Very few crooks are held responsible for their actions.

[cbs_bull]

Interesting comparisons:
1> 20 years ago, a few powerful people in the Chinese government ordered army to crush peaceful demonstrations by millions ordinary citizens. At least hundreds were brutally killed. Today, the Chinese government still refuses to let the world know the death toll. No one has been punished for the massacre.

6 years ago, a few powerful people in the US government used made-up 'facts' to invade Iraq that has nothing to do with the 9-11. Thousands of Americans and perhaps much more Iraqis have lost their lives. Today, the US government still refuses to reveal the death toll of Iraqis. No one has been punished for starting the unjustified war.

2> The government controlled schools don't teach students the truth of 6.4. Today, young Chinese know little about what happened in Beijing 20 years ago.

Many people and some schools in the US want to stop teaching evolution. They only want kids to believe the Earth is a few thousand years old and everything is created by a single God.

[mjinba07]

cbs_bull at 8:01 PM : Jun 4, 2009, don't forget about that administration, and congress, knowing that torture is illegal - by our OWN standards, which WE defined and wrote out - and then they not only went ahead with it anyway but the ex-vp STILL lobbying for it... and to this day still getting air time.

We broke our own laws, really serious laws, laws which define us as Americans, laws inwhich other countries are involved, and we broke them very very badly.

Lied to Congress and the American public about "WMDs," invaded another country, which further set off chains of events resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and displacement and poverty of even more.

Sat down and discussed the methods, locations, legal ramifications and parameters of torture as coldly as the Nazi's did in WWII Germany.

Seem to think there's nothing wrong with that.

Are we American or Chinese?
Are we American? Then we should all be outraged and we should be flooding our representatives offices with letters demanding an independent commission to hold those responsible, namely the last president and his administration. If the current president wants to pardon him, so be it. But at least he'd have to admit that what he did was wrong wrong wrong.

[mjinba07]

do we have consitintutional rights? I see them being taken away day by day.I can't cary my guns without cops knowing I have them. Don't believe me? We have a scanner, get pulled over they air he or she has a cc weapon permit.
Posted by mike18881 at 7:22 PM : Jun 4, 2009

And this is a violation of your "consitintutional" rights how?

[cbs_bull]

Interesting comparisons:
1> 20 years ago, a few powerful people in the Chinese government ordered army to crush peaceful demonstrations by millions ordinary citizens. At least hundreds were brutally killed. Today, the Chinese government still refuses to let the world know the death toll. No one has been punished for the massacre.

6 years ago, a few powerful people in the US government used made-up 'facts' to invade Iraq that has nothing to do with the 9-11. Thousands of Americans and perhaps much more Iraqis have lost their lives. Today, the US government still refuses to reveal the death toll of Iraqis. No one has been punished for starting the unjustified war.

2> The government controlled schools don't teach students the truth of 6.4. Today, young Chinese know little about what happened in Beijing 20 years ago.

Many people and some schools in the US want to stop teaching evolution. They only want kids to believe the Earth is a few thousand years old and everything is created by a single God.