30 September 2014

Photos: Tiananmen Protesters Were Heartbreakingly Young, Earnest, and Happy & These Insane Photos Show What the Hell Is Happening in Hong Kong 4JUN&29SEP14

THERE was so much hope for China in the Spring of 1989. Eastern Europe was being liberated from the Soviet Union, glastnost was all the buzz throughout the USSR and now there was a peaceful student lead pro democracy movement gaining support across communist ruled China. And then came the horror of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Will Hong Kong be a repeat of 1989? On thing is certain, the people of Hong Kong can not count on support of the Western capitalist democracies of their struggle for freedom and democracy. And the people of these democracies will feign horror at another bloody crackdown when it happens in Hong Kong, and then they will continue to buy products made in the prc, supporting and funding the very same government that murders it's own people to stay in power. I am sorry the vast majority of us are so self centered and hypocritical that we put our own selfish desire for things over the human rights of others. And I pray I am wrong, and the people of Hong Kong win their struggle and become a beacon of light and hope for the prc and oppressed people the world over. From +Mother Jones .....

Photos: Tiananmen Protesters Were Heartbreakingly Young, Earnest, and Happy

Twenty-five years ago, Chinese leaders violently suppressed a student uprising in Beijing. These photos document the before and after.

| Wed Jun. 4, 2014 6:00 AM EDT

Twenty-five years ago, the Communist Party leadership of China violently suppressed student demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, killing countless peaceful protesters. The demonstrations began in April as spontaneous rallies commemorating the life of Hu Yaobang, a politician whom students regarded as open-minded and pro-reform. But soon, the protests had become a nationwide call for increased democratic rights, government transparency, and freedom of the press. The movement threatened the top leadership to its core, and during the night of June 3, 1989, and the morning of June 4, troops cleared the square. These photos trace the short arc of the demonstrations and their devastating aftermath.

April 21, 1989: According to official government documents compiled in the Tiananmen Papers, an exhaustive account of the demonstrations, emotions in the square reached a "fever pitch" on this day. In this photo, taken on April 21, people flock around the Monument to the People's Heroes, where, several days earlier, a group of art students had placed a portrait of their hero, Hu Yaobang, opposite Mao's portrait (which you can see in the background). Students representing 10 universities marched on the square on the day photographed, circulating petitions demanding competitive elections and political reforms. According to an official government account, they chanted: "Long live democracy!" and "oppose dictatorship!" (Sadayuki Mikami/AP)

May 1989: Wang Dan, a 20-year-old freshman studying history at Beijing University, rose to prominence in the student occupation of the square, seeming to hold "the greatest influence," according to a New York Times profile filed at the time. The characters on Wang's headband read "hunger strike," because hunger strikes were a key element of the protests. After the crackdown, Wang was one of 21 people the government identified as key leaders of the protests, and was among those who were rounded up and sent to prison. He was released in 1993, only to be rearrested in 1995 and sentenced to 11 more years.
Canadian journalist Jan Wong wrote that during his time in prison, Wang Dan marked each anniversary of the massacre with a 24-hour hunger strike: "I plan to do so every June 4th for the rest of my life," Wang said. These days, Wang Dan describes himself as "an incorrigible idealist" on his Twitter profile. (AP Photo)

May 17, 1989: This photo captures the spirit of the early protests, which were raucous and attracted broad support from locals and the media. International coverage of the 1989 events might lead you to believe the student protests only happened in Beijing. But on May 17 alone, 27 provinces reported large-scale demonstrations—16 of which included 10,000 or more protesters, according to the Tiananmen Papers. The widespread unrest put the pressure on leaders to come up with a solution, and in the Chinese corridors of power, the embattled and divided Politburo was reaching the conclusion that martial law was a necessary step in putting down the protests. (Sadayuki Mikami/AP)

Friday May 19: Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party General Secretary who had pioneered market reforms, meets with fasting students in Beijing to urge them to stop their hunger strike. Zhao, who had pushed for a more lenient reaction to the protests, was later ousted from government. "We have come too late," he said to the students that day, in comments broadcast on television. "I am sorry, fellow students. No matter how you have criticized us, I think you have the right to do so. We do not come here to ask you to excuse us." After negotiations with the students failed, Communist Party leaders ordered a troop takeover of Beijing, and People's Liberation Army troops began to occupy Beijing. (Xinhua/AP)

May 21, 1989: University students wave fists and flags as five Chinese military helicopters fly over Beijing at dawn. The number of people in the square swelled to some 300,000 on this day. Reports said that locals pleaded with army officers to resist using force, and prevented troops on the ground from reaching the square. (AP Photo)

May 22, 1989: A young couple dances among a crowd, which had been occupying Tiananmen Square for nine days at this point. What strikes me about this photo is how different the square—and young peoples' relationship to politics—is today. A generation on, young Chinese have been deprived of the cultural memory of Tiananmen. Many young Chinese have never learned about the events around June 4. If they have heard anything about what is euphemistically called the "incident," it's often that it was a blip on the radar in the otherwise unblemished history of Communist rule. Of course, the sanitized version is far from the truth…Louisa Lim, NPR's Beijing correspondent, calls today's China The People's Republic of Amnesia. (Mark Avery/AP)

May 30, 1989: Protesters occupying Tiananmen Square work on the statue of the Goddess of Democracy, a plaster symbol of resistance and unity modeled after the Statue of Liberty. (Jeff Widener/AP)

June 3, 1989: This photo depicts a moment just before the government's response to the demonstrations turned violent. On June 3, huge crowds gathered at a Beijing intersection. The bloody crackdown was about to begin. This time, the troops had strict orders: Clear the square. (Jeff Widener/AP)

June 4, 1989: The bodies of dead civilians rest among mangled bicycles near the square. (AP Photo)

June 5, 1989: In eastern Beijing, a Chinese couple on a bicycle take cover at an underpass as tanks roll past overhead. (Liu Heung Shing/AP)

June 5, 1989: "This guy's going to screw up my picture," Associated Press photographer Jeff Widener thought as a man appeared in front of four tanks in Tiananmen Square. "I really thought I'd missed the hoop on that basketball court," Widener told me in a 2009 interview, explaining that he took this photo while leaning over a balcony of the Beijing Hotel, with all the wrong camera settings, concussed from a stray rock, and suffering from a cold. "I think about how close I came to not getting the picture," he added.
Widener was able to smuggle the film out of the hotel with the help of a young tourist. The next day, he arrived at the AP offices in Beijing to learn that his photo was on the front pages of the world's newspapers. Its power only dawned on him later: "It's a bit like David and Goliath," he said. "It's just so overpowering—it's like an ant against an elephant."
We still don't know the identity of Tank Man. "Many people would like to know who he is, and personally, my feeling is is that it's kind of neat that we don't know who he is, because he's sort of representative of the unknown soldier," Widener said. This photo is "part of me," he added. "I'm responsible for telling its story over and over and over again." (Jeff Widener/AP)

June 5, 1989: The military crackdown ended the seven week pro-democracy demonstration in Tiananmen Square. (Jeff Widener/AP)

Mark Murrmann

Photo Editor

Mark Murrmann is the Photo Editor at Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. RSS | Twitter

James West

Climate Desk Producer

James West is senior producer for the Climate Desk and a contributing producer for Mother Jones. He wrote Beijing Blur (Penguin 2008), and produced award-winning TV in his native Australia. He's been to Kyrgyzstan, and also invited himself to Thanksgiving dinner after wrongly receiving invites for years from the mysterious Tran family. RSS | Twitter

These Insane Photos Show What the Hell Is Happening in Hong Kong

Teargas and pepper spray aren't silencing protesters' calls for greater autonomy. What's next?

—By James West and Mark Murrmann

| Mon Sep. 29, 2014 3:35 PM EDT

Hong Kong riot police fire teargas at protesters early on Monday, September 29. Wally Santana/AP

Hong Kong—usually an orderly finance haven—erupted over the weekend as police used teargas and pepper spray to break up a three-day student sit-in that occupied the central business district. Thousands of protesters have deployed umbrellas to protect themselves from the chemical attack—some people are dubbing it the Umbrella Revolution—and have even picked up the hands-up "don't shoot" gesture from protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
The protests were the culmination of a campaign organized last year by the student group "Occupy Central," calling for free elections and more autonomy for Hong Kong, which is controlled by the Communist Party in Beijing.
At issue are assurances China made to Hong Kong when it took the reins back from Britain in 1997. Under the so-called "one country, two systems" deal, Hong Kong was allowed to keep its common-law system and enjoy greater rights than those on the mainland (where news of the protests has been aggressively censored). By 2017, Hong Kong residents hoped they would be able to elect their own chief executive—the top representative of their so-called Special Administrative Region. But now, China appears to be reneging on the spirit of its deal. President Xi Jinping has firmly rejected open nominations for candidates, and says they will continue to be vetted by a central committee in Beijing.
The government's crackdown has been unsuccessful in dispersing the protesters, who are still out on the streets—and solidarity marches are taking place in cities around the world, including Ferguson. Here's a wrap-up of photos from the weekend.