China wants us to forget the horrors of Tiananmen as it rewrites its history

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/19/china-wants-us-to-forget-the-horrors-of-tiananmen-as-it-rewrites-its-history

by okket • 7 years ago

43 19 7 years ago

theguardian.com

dm3730• 7 years ago

Unlike "us", we never rewrote our history, right?

johnchristopher3• 7 years ago

Any example of events 'us' is actively removing from history the same way China is doing with the the Tiananmen event ?

edit: I can think of the Armenian genocide but it's not yet dealt with the same diligence and tech level than the Tiananmen event is.

y4mi2• 7 years ago

I'm neither the parent poster nor American, but from a Europeans perspective I'd say that America handles their censorship differently. Dissenters disappear in China. In America they're discredited and made into conspiracy theorist.

But nonetheless: the tiananmen square is quite unique in it's bloodiness.i know of nothing even remotely as bad as military personal killing unarmed civilians in the hundreds which mostly just try to flee.

coldtea3• 7 years ago

Any example of events 'us' is actively removing from history the same way China is doing with the the Tiananmen event ?

All kinds of events, from the Philippines war, to provoking Japan in WWII, to Mosaddegh, Vietnam atrocities, to the bloody US labour history, and so on [1].

Though in the US, as long as their importance is downplayed at official politics and the educational system, you can still let people talk and write books about those events, since nobody really cares. A lot of the suffering in those events happened to people outside the country anyway.

Whereas in China, talk about their things could seriously polarize people and have extended consequences (not just the CCP elites falling from grace, but also a hellish period of power struggles to fill the power vacuum, even a civil war).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_the_Un...

chewz3• 7 years ago

Labor Day is internationally on May 1st to commemorate Haymarket Masacre in Chicago 1886. Not in US however.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day

MayeulC• 7 years ago

Not the same way, but this is a thread I stumbled upon the other day:

https://www.reddit.com/r/fakehistoryporn/comments/bm2ek3/the...

Instead of "active censorship", history gets rewritten much like our own memories, after all: we tend to keep the ones (or the viewpoints) we are more comfortable with. I don't even think there is a need for a concerted effort.

vixen99• 7 years ago

You can show whether it's 'right' or not by providing some examples.

hereiskkb• 7 years ago

Your whataboutism isn't helping.

coldtea3• 7 years ago

A, what once was called "pointing out the hypocrisy" is now called "whataboutism".

A perfect way for people living in glass houses to throw all the stones they like at others unharmed...

chewz3• 7 years ago

Every country rewrites history continuously. Some just use softer ways to rewrite dominant historical narration then others.

What is a nation? A group of people united in mistaken view about the past and hatred of their neighbours.
Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation. [1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_a_Nation%3F

vfulco2• 7 years ago

Oddly this was accessible from mainland without VPN. Wonder how long this will last?

gremlinsinc• 7 years ago

If they don't want remembered for atrocities in the past, maybe they shouldn't keep doing them in the present (e.g. ethnic concentration camps).

China wants us to forget the horrors of Tiananmen as it rewrites its history

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