Notes for Friday – June 03, 2016
On June 3, we remember those who lost their lives in China in a failed bid for freedom. In 1989, with the protests for democratic reforms entering their seventh week, the Chinese government authorized its soldiers and tanks to reclaim Beijing’s Tiananmen Square at all costs. By nightfall on June 4, Chinese troops had forcibly cleared the square, killing hundreds and arresting thousands of demonstrators. In the weeks afterward, an unknown number of dissidents were executed. The world responded with sanctions sending China’s economy into decline, but by late 1990, all was forgotten as China released a few hundred prisoners. …