We must remember Tiananmen
CBC News Viewpoint | June 10, 2005
June 4 marked the 16th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre and not one candle was lit in remembrance. At least not in the square.
While my head told me that I should stay far away from the square, my heart guaranteed my attendance. An eerie calm descended on the world's largest public square to mark the night the tanks rolled in under the order of the Communist government, but no flowers were laid.
Perhaps it was fitting the massive, and somewhat oppressive picture of Chairman Mao was dark that night. There were only a few floodlights lit, illuminating the hundred or so soldiers and police officers in attendance. I have never seen the square empty and dark before, especially not the Great Leader's picture.
I had two friends fly into Beijing to visit me that day so I thought it would be a good idea to take them with me to Tiananmen Square. Not just because it's a must-see in Beijing but because they provided me with the perfect cover for visiting on the anniversary.
Both my buddies are adventurers and politically-minded so they were willing participants in my clandestine operation. I was warned by a couple of Chinese colleagues to be especially careful of talking to strangers while near the square. They told me undercover police and government officials would be close by and listening if they could.
To give an example of the type of oppression they were talking about, a Canadian colleague of mine tried to walk past Zhao Ziyang's house after he died last year and an officer with near-perfect English demanded he show his passport and explain his presence in the area of the former president's home.
The officer yanked the camera out of my colleague's hand and started scrolling through the pictures he'd taken. Luckily, he never got to the ones he snapped off of the ousted leader's house. My friend is certain that if not for the help of a Chinese friend of his, who is also a Communist party member, he would have been detained.
The tension was thick as we approached the square from the subway. I was anxious, filling my head with crisis scenarios, but my two friends commented on it, as well. Both felt like they were being watched or followed.
We may have made the situation more than it was but we all agreed the tension, regardless, was there. It didn't help that dozens, if not hundreds, of armed soldiers and police officers were watching us closely to see what we were doing.
We stood across the darkened square, cracked a beer we brought with us, and quietly raised a toast to the people who died that night 16 years ago. It wasn't a fitting tribute and it wasn't a political statement. It was just a few Canadians saying, "We remember."
We returned to the square the next morning to see if everything had returned to business as usual. It had. Tourists snapped photos in front of Chairman Mao and The Great Hall of the People. Vendors hawked cheap merchandise to unsuspecting tourists and there were line-ups to visit Mao's tomb.
The vast majority of the people in the square were Chinese but there were many "Lao Wai," too, foreigners, who appearing oblivious to the slaughter 16 years before and of what those people died for.
It was depressing to think so many died and no one mourns for them. It seemed to me that June 4 has become China's worst-kept dirty little secret. The Chinese themselves know it happened but it's either too embarrassing or too painful to acknowledge. It's easier to wave to the camera in front of the Great Leader and turn a blind eye than to remember and ask why. But that really isn't the truth.
Some do remember. Some will never forget that many of their countrymen, people they never met or had even heard of before, died so they could enjoy a better life.
Some do remember because they have the photos of that bloody night they developed secretly. Some remember because they have the scars from tripping over the body of the person in front of them who fell trying to run away from the advancing tanks.
And while China's economy continues to boom and the standard of living for millions of citizens gets better daily under this Communist regime, the fallen will not fade into obscurity. So while no wreaths were laid and no candles publicly lit, those people did not die for nothing: some still remember and will never forget.
