Tiananmen Square Fifteen Years Later

On this day fifteen years ago, students and workers protesting corruption and lack of government accountablity were massacred in Tiananmen Square. To date, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) denies the massacre and allows no public or private discussion of the blood on its hands. The New York Times this morning reported on steps taken by the butchers of Beijing to silence those who would keep alive public memory of Tiananmen Square. The Washington Post this morning reported on years of harrassment and oppression endured by those listed on the CCP's "Most Wanted" list after Tiananmen Square.

In an editorial this morning, the Wall Street Journal reasoned that the CCP seeks economic prosperity to justify its sole possession of political power in China. The Journal wondered whether success in creating a middle class will ultimately mean the end to one party rule in China. There is a record of democracy growing out of middle class prosperity and this pattern may prove prophetic for China. Speculation about the future, however, does nothing for ordinary people who today hunger and thirst for freedom. The Chinese people can be sated with consumerism, but they will not be free. Prosperity has no meaning without freedom to pursue objective truth.

The CCP has a pattern of its own. Abuses are denied and overlooked until those who profited from them are dead, at which point the CCP uses the cathartic effect of public acknowledgement of the past to bolster the reputation of current leaders. There is no objective truth in this pattern because ultimately, it is the CCP and not individual leaders that must be held accountable. Until this happens, until one-party rule is ended, until the Chinese people are free, Tiananmen Square should shape every thought about China.

Never forget Tiananmen Square.