Reflections on China’s Tiananmen tragedyBy Lee min-yung 李敏勇The events that unfolded in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, have become a historical footnote. These Western nations were under the misguided impression that aiding China’s economic development could help it progress toward social and political liberalization. The reality is that this help grew out of cheap self-serving interest in China’s rock-bottom prices, mass labor, factories and markets. Tiananmen was China’s opportunity to democratize, yet the protests are little more than a footnote in history. The Tiananmen Massacre is a stain on history China can never erase.
