Tiananmen Square Massacre Essay

Censorship

Censorship’s negative effect will arouse a rebellion that would be more egregious than the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989, once Chinese people find out that their own Chinese troops, slaughtered several students who were just participating in a non-violent protest. The Chinese people and the Chinese culture would not be the same after the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4th, 1989. Since the protest, the Chinese government suppressed everything from the Chinese people.This included google, social media, and anything of that sort that would allow one to search anything ‘incriminating’, like Tiananmen Square. Furthermore, if any Chinese citizen, who was able to live to tell the tale, would also be punished, whether being
sentenced life in prison or being sent for execution. Because of this terror the government instilled in their people, there has not been no freedom of speech exercised in China, since this unspeakable tragedy.
This protest was prompted by the death of Hu Yaobang, general secretary of the Communist party in April 1989.
Since he played a role of trying to make China more ‘modern’ and trying to create ways to increase economic growth, hundreds and thousands of students wanted to go to Tiananmen square to pay their respects. Some of these students also wanted to voice their opinion on “China’s authoritative communist government” (History). Because the students were not in agreement with the Chinese government and the way its was supposed to be ran, they ordered to speak with Premier Li Peng. Unfortunately, their request was denied and that was when the terror began. Over a hundred thousand students from forty universities came to protest in Tiananmen Square. Not only were there students, but there were intellectuals, workers, and civil servants. By the end of May, there were over a one million protesters at Tiananmen Square. The Chinese government was not pleased that so many of their citizens were protesting and not abiding rules, after many attempts and many mediations to end this protest. Due to the citizens disobedience, the government called for martial law and Chinese troops to retrieve Tiananmen Square at any cost. Many of the troops murdered several non-violent protesters that day. After that day, the government threatened all of their citizens if they speak of that day, they will immediately be
punished.
Subsequently, the freedom of speech had been departed. The government punished any citizen who did not follow the ‘norm’ or who exercised any freedom of speech. In addition, the officials have denied their citizens any access to use web pages like all Google sites, Youtube, and anything that would allow their citizen to have access to the past. Since then, China has replaced all of those with their own like ‘Great Firewall’. This web page blocks access to certain websites and filters any keywords. This website also makes sure that any and all journalists are not using their jobs to expose China. Although the government has setup all these security features in China, it still has not stopped several journalists from revealing the truth about the ‘real China’. In an article by Xu Benia, he discusses the arrest of Lin Xiaobo, a famous activist during the Tiananmen Square, and many more journalists, that have been arrested and sentenced more than two years in prison for exercising their freedom of speech and telling the truth. He states,
“As of December, 2014, forty-four journalists were imprisoned in China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S.-based watchdog on press freedom issues. In 2009, Chinese rights activist Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to eleven years in prison for advocating democratic reforms and freedom of speech in Charter 08, a 2008 statement signed by more than two thousand prominent Chinese citizens that called for political and human rights reforms and an end to one-party rule. When Liu won the Nobel Peace Prize, censors blocked the news in China. Early 2014 saw the government detain Gao Yu, a columnist who was jailed on accusations of leaking a Party communiqué titled Document 9” (Beinu,1). Though many believe that China is censoring many web pages, many China officials believe that they are only ‘managing’ what their citizens should be able to look at online. In an article by Fox news, it discusses how Lu Wei, the chief of Administration of China, who tells a reporter that China is not suppressing their people from the outside world. It states
“China does not censor but “manages” Internet content, the Hong Kong Free Press reports, citing transcripts of Wednesday’s press conference in Zhejiang province provided by the Xinua state news agency. “It is a misuse of words if you say ‘content censorship'," Lu said. “But no censorship does not mean there is no management. The Chinese government learnt how to manage the internet from Western developed countries, we have not learnt enough yet” (Fox News).
Lu Wei is absolutely downplaying the situation because, China blocks all websites that discuss Tiananmen Square or or any web page that conflicts with China’s morals. In addition. China punishes anyone who discusses the event that occurred on June 4th. If that is not censorship or suppressing, then what is? China is utterly afraid of another rebellion that might occur if their citizens were to find out that they hid and did not honor the non-violent protesters who died on Tiananmen Square.
China’s censorship will cause many more rebellions to come. Once more of their citizens find out the truth about the non-violent protesters that have been killed, during the Tiananmen Square, they will try to release the news like Gao Yu or Li Xibao because they will feel as though citizens of China deserve to know the truth about the monstrous government. Not only did this government punish people that witnessed this event, but they also pretend like it never happened. This is said because they awarded the troops that helped resolved the issue in Tiananmen Square instead of paying respects to the lives lost or aiding the families that lost loved ones that day. The Chinese government is a representation of inhumane, but they are remorseless human beings.