963
submitted 1 week ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, with government using increasingly sophisticated tools to censor its discussion

There is no official death toll but activists believe hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed by China’s People’s Liberation Army in the streets around Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s central plaza, on 4 June 1989.

The date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, and the Chinese government employs extensive and increasingly sophisticated resources to censor any discussion or acknowledgment of it inside China. Internet censors scrub even the most obscure references to the date from online spaces, and activists in China are often put under increased surveillance or sent on enforced “holidays” away from Beijing.

New research from human rights workers has found that the sensitive date also sees heightened transnational repression of Chinese government critics overseas by the government and its proxies.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] iMastari@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago
[-] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 1 points 6 days ago

Reading this whole thing never gets easier

[-] Donebrach@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Narrator: “It did.”

[-] Krono@lemmy.today 156 points 1 week ago

As an American I think it's helpful to put this into some sort of perspective.

Things the US won't forget:

  • Tiananmen Square (thousands dead)

Things the US will forget:

  • Korean War (3mil civilian dead)

  • Vietnam War (2mil civilian dead)

  • Iraqi War (1mil civilian dead)

  • Violent overthrow of East Timor (widely considered a genocide)

  • Violent overthrow of Afghanistan (twice, over 1 mil dead)

  • Violent overthrow of Nicaragua

  • Violent overthrow of Grenada

  • Violent overthrow of Panama

  • Violent overthrow of Libya

  • Coup d'etat of Guatemala

  • Coup d'etat of Iran

  • Failed Coup d'etat of Syria

  • Failed Coup d'etat of Indonesia

  • Many failed Coup d'etat attempts on Cuba

  • Coup d'etat of Congo

  • Coup d'etat of Laos

  • Coup d'etat of the Dominican Republic

  • Coup d'etat of Iraq

  • Coup d'etat of Brazil

  • Successful Coup d'etat of Indonesia (1 mil dead)

  • Coup d'etat of Chile

  • Multiple Coup d'etat of Bolivia

  • Coup d'etat of Haiti

  • Multiple Coup d'etat attempts on Venezuela

  • Coup d'etat of Palestine

  • Mass civilian casualties, destabilization of many governments, people subject to a lifetime of torture without a trial, all under the War on Terror

This list could be so much longer, but I gotta get to work.

[-] trumboner@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Hey, the difference is, you can post this list here, and nothing will happen to you.

Become a Chinese citizen, and then post that single bullet item about the TS incident in China, on a Chinese social media. Then see what happens.

[-] Krono@lemmy.today 1 points 6 days ago

That may be true, but it doesn't excuse the list at all.

My country is responsible for the majority of international violence since WWII. I find that morally unacceptable.

I make posts like this because I want my country to do better. But the sad reality is we have yet to learn our lesson. We have been aiding and abetting an ongoing Holocaust for almost two years now.

load more comments (43 replies)
[-] taladar@sh.itjust.works 107 points 1 week ago

"Never forget" is great and all but from a German perspective it seems to not be enough. It is much more important to make sure the same or very similar things do not happen again, not by China and not by any other nation. Otherwise you end up like we did here in Germany where decades of "never forget" lead to very similar sentiments being expressed by a new major party but since things are slightly different (e.g. the "never forget" was always phrased to be about Jews, this is more about foreigners in general) people seem to allow themselves to ignore them.

[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 81 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

"Never again":

  • ❌ "We must never do what we did to the Jews in WW2 again".
  • ✅ "We can never allow what we did to the Jews in WW2 to happen again to anyone".
[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 80 points 1 week ago

US currently working on ways to top it.

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] unphazed@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago

Meanwhile Oklahoma telling kids the 2020 election was rigged under state law.

load more comments (18 replies)
[-] Timoruz@lemm.ee 40 points 1 week ago

Was genuinely thinking of walking in front of Trump’s military parade.

[-] Subdivide6857@midwest.social 39 points 1 week ago

The capitalism capital of the world probably shouldn’t be preaching about human rights.

[-] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 46 points 1 week ago

Boy, you sure did get 'em. No pointing out bad behavior unless your history is unblemished, I guess.

[-] grte@lemmy.ca 31 points 1 week ago

US history is a little more than unblemished, though. Hell, not even history. They are literally arming a genocidal state as we speak.

load more comments (2 replies)

Tankie bot says what now? Get lost.

load more comments (11 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[-] CatDogL0ver@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago

This is just my personal experience:

~I was talking to a few young Chinese. They were after born after the massacre happened.~

"Why are Hong Kong people are so full of themselves and rebellious? They think they are better? (Derogatory comments....", cheating among themselves, happily.

I couldn't help and interrupted, "Some young promising Hong Kong students were murdered, beaten and kidnapped under the mainland China. You can't blame them for not being defensive."

Immediately they resorted to their memorised response, "Do you have any resources to back up what you said? The official death count was zero."

Of course there was no "official" news resources. China suppresses the news media.

"It is the same as Tiananmen massacre. You won't find any "official resources " but everyone knows people were killed."

Another one retorted, "The official number is zero. What official resources you have to backup your claim?"

It was useless to talk anymore at that moment. I left. My encounter probably would be on their "report."

[-] KuroiKaze@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

I find it pretty rare to meet Chinese people like that. Most of the ones I meet know that stuff happened isn't that the government covered it up but they don't think that the government covering things up is all that unusual or newsworthy.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
963 points (100.0% liked)

World News

47407 readers
2495 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS