Tiananmen, 35 years later: a generation with more resources but much more controlled

Political control in China is, 35 years after the Tiananmen massacre, much harsher than in 1989, denounce Human rights who, however, believe that younger generations are better informed and have more resources to overcome the censorship.

More than three decades after the events that occurred on the night of June 3 to 4, 1989, when soldiers and tanks of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army made their way to the central Beijing square, the subject remains taboo in China, which has never has published an official number of deaths due to military repression, which ranges between hundreds and thousands of people, according to the source.

“Idealistic university students began protesting, who had high hopes for the country. There was a great need for reforms and problems of social injustice. At the time, the Communist Party (CCP) was divided internally, and everything seemed to indicate that there could be a change. The protests also won the support of the general population.”Renee Xia, director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), tells EFE.

Military repression in the streets of the capital ended any attempt to demand greater political openness and the authorities bet everything on economic reform without being held accountable for that chapter, as if it had never happened.

Other problems

“Now, the challenges are different. Our generation takes for granted that political change is not possible and also has other concerns. The sustainability of the model, the economic slowdown. That there is no work like before. “That we cannot buy a house, that bubbles are burst, that there are inequalities,” comments a Beijing worker in the audiovisual sector.

It is also another China since the CCP, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, opted for “strengthen control, relying on the massive use of new technologies” and for “a social model based on censorship, propaganda and surveillance,” denounces Reporters Without Borders.

“It is a paradoxical situation. Today’s political repression is much harsher than that of 1989, but young people are better informed and have more resources, such as VPN services, which are used to bypass censorship and access banned pages such as GoogleYoutube or X”says Xia.

He “challenge”he adds, is “the cruelty of the regime when it comes to punishing critics and activists.”

“To this we must add the lack of political will of democratic leaders when it comes to trying to stop attacks on human rights,” says Xia, who believes that the West relaxed the sanctions for Tiananmen “too soon.” which allowed Beijing to “become a superpower prepared to dominate the international order according to its own rules.”

Protests despite control

The repression today affects Chinese citizens who do not live in their country, Sarah Brooks, director of Amnesty International for China, tells EFE: “There are students who are pressured when they are away with threats to their families.”

“The Government draws on nationalism and asks them not to betray the motherland by attending events in which the country is criticized, which represents a serious threat to the free exchange of ideas,” points out.

Brooks highlights that, however, in recent years there have been sporadic expressions of discontent such as protests in Shanghai and Beijing against draconian anti-pandemic restrictions.

But also against censorship and the lack of freedom of expression, something that was reflected in the sheets of blank paper that the protesters showed at the end of 2022: “Little by little, more people have managed to escape the ‘Great Firewall of China’ , which prevents access to censored applications and pages.”

“But these new generations have been very disappointed after the pandemic”says Xia, who believes that although many do not know what it really meant, Tiananmen left “a legacy about courage.”

“The repression further fueled the passion and efforts in the fight for human rights. Furthermore, the Government has not been able to completely erase that episode from collective memory. Thanks to the Internet, but also to oral tradition. And now many people are making efforts to document what happened with eyewitness accounts, photographs and videos.”he asserts.

Opinion shared by Brooks, who emphasizes the importance of remembering the anniversary now that the founders of the Tiananmen Mothers, the group that brings together the relatives of the victims, “they slowly begin to disappear.”

Although there were 155 relatives, the death toll in 1989 was higher, without counting other types of victims, such as cripples, orphans or exiles. The total number remains unknown and, every time a sensitive date approaches, China increases surveillance so that its voice cannot be heard.

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