"In recent years Chinese college students have been rebellious against all sorts of authority, the favorite word among the youth in China is No."(Bernstein, The New York Times). The Tiananmen Square Protest in 1989 campaigned for a peaceful transition from Communism to Democracy. Although the protest itself was non-violent, the government imposed terror to suppress the violence. The bloodshed that resulted from the tanks and soldiers drew foreign attentions. Thus, the Tiananmen Square has destructed China’s communist image over the past decade. Nevertheless, the Chinese government did not take the protest as a turning point to its socialist market or government. China launched its political and socialist reforms in 1976, thirteen years before …show more content…
The Tiananmen Square rebellion had an immediate effect on China’s foreign relations. “Together with its allies, the United States quickly imposed a series of diplomatic and economic sanctions against China” (The National Bureau of Asian Research). With declined tourism and withdrawing foreign investments, China’s GDP growth rate dropped from 11 to 3%. As a result, China wanted to over come the to international isolation, and to rebuild relationship with foreign countries and regain access to international markets and investments. Over time, China has gradually regained the relationship through communication, compromisation, and restored affairs. However, the Tiananmen Square Protest has damaged China’s international image. To the world, it was a shocking to see the government violently suppress freedom and violate the basics of human rights. The US president George Bush said, “he deeply deplored the use of force”, while the UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said she was “shocked and appalled by the shootings” (BBC News). When China attempted to regain its image by hosting the 2000 Olympics game, the International Olympics Committee received multiple complaints on China’s lack of political freedom and human rights. Furthermore, many countries continue to urge the China to reveal the truth. “In 2009, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, released a statement to urge Beijing to account for those killed in a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago” (Branigan). Additionally, the Tiananmen Square puts democracy in a certain text. By demonizing the Chinese, it makes China and Communism appear weaker, especially when they are antagonize on the ground of lesser human rights. Thus, in the next five years, the Tiananmen Square
Until reading Red Scarf Girl, I believed in that the ideal society could, no, would someday exist. But now I have been convinced otherwise. The youth of China believed that Mao’s purpose of the cultural revolution was to unify and strengthen their country. While this was later discovered to be untrue, they tried to accomplish that by bringing
Despite the good that Xiaoping did for China economically, he was far from being a perfect leader. The handling of 1989 Tiananmen Square Protest and Massacre still showed the terrible side of the Chinese Communist Party. Following Xiaoping there was a time where it seemed as if China was starting to open up more. This would change under the leadership of President Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping took over with a vision of a new Chinese state.
When Japan invaded China in 1937, they started a chain of events leading to their defeat at the end of the second world war. Between circa 1925 and circa 1950 the Chinese communist party took hold of China sparking nationalism and anti-japanese stances, bringing the people new opportunities, and advocating social and gender equality. The Chinese people felt a loss of pride when Japan invaded them, but with the rising of the communist party they felt a new sense of nationalism and pride in their country. When looking at the conversation between a teenager and his grandfather, we get a wider picture at what life was like before the communist party rose to power.
In the article, “China Censors: The Tiananmen Square Anniversary Will Not Be Tweeted” it wrote, “Tanks and soldiers were sent in to control the crowds.” In 1989 some students were protesting against the Chinese government, and it got out of control and people were injured. People all over the world were reporting on this topic. This may emphasize why we need to censor the world, so violent protests will not occur. This is the opposite though, without protests no change will occur.
In August of 1966 the Red Guard had gotten out of hand, the widespread chaos and destruction they had caused even caught the attention of Mao. Mao had sent the Red guards on a mission to destroy “The Four Olds” , old customs, culture, habits, and ideas. In an attempt to call the nation he invited every Red Guard to go to Beijing on public transportation free of charge. Children swarmed to the city in masses to see tiananmen square, the memorial to the fallen heroes of the revolution and Mao’s mausoleum. They crowded into the square in identical uniforms to read quotations from the Little Red Book and to admire the massive image of Chairman Mao that had been placed on the front of the gates to the forbidden city.
"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. "-Socrates. Peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society because the society is not free unless it's able to check the government. As long as the protest of the law remains peaceful it is a good thing. It is the public telling the government that they will not let them gain to much power and crush their human rights.
The death of Michael Brown, a young African-American, happened just over a year ago. The community of Ferguson, Missouri came together to peacefully protest in honor of Michael, and fulfill the Black Lives Matter movement; although once things began to escalate, the police presence became stronger. Police forces are often expressed as being separate from military or other organizations involved in the defense of the state against attackers. However, with the Ferguson protests and riots the police chose to use many tactics in order to diminish the protests and riots. After the African-American teen Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a police officer, the hashtag and movement, #BlackLivesMatter, was created.
Peaceful protests challenge and demand change from society’s injustices in a nonviolent manner. Injustices provoke the responses from average citizens to set forth a new era of equality. Conducted in a nonviolent manner, peaceful protesting seeks the unification of communities to battle injustices. The unwarranted treatment of African Americas in America prompted the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. The Civil Rights Movement provides some of the most memorable demonstrations of peaceful protesting.
On the other hand, it leaves a kind of profound thinking about the typical ordinary Chinese ideology and how great is the impact of such a decision on people’s
As China grew with population and technologies, so did their government. Their military was weak but they had the idea to make iron and steel weaponry. The increase of weapons allowed the Chinese military to have more power over the people. Yet, the downfall of their era was their tactics in controlling their army and the rebellious citizens. As China’s economy and population grows, so does the growth of politics and Urban life styles.
The 1963 March on Washington is arguably the most notable event of the cutting edge civil rights movement. More than 250,000 people from across America came together in Washington D.C. in a peaceful demonstration with the hope of bringing an end to racial segregation within the educational system, as well as help to create job equality as well as the freedom of African-Americans as a whole. The march played a pivotal role in the growing fight for civil rights, no more so than that of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It was a discourse of hope and determination, and it typified the message the marchers declared of racial equality and a conviction that Black and White Americans could live respectively in peace. This essay will
In the mid 19th century, the Chinese were experiencing extreme poverty and discontent. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, China was a booming economic power, producing a large majority of the world’s goods. But the country fell behind in technology and industry, not understanding how to utilise and distribute their land effectively. Rebellions, such as the Taiping Rebellion, and the military failure of the Opium Wars demonstrated to the Chinese government that reform was required. After defeating the rebels, the government attempted to appease them with the Self-Strengthening Movement.
In this essay “No one died in Tiananmen Square” by William Lutz, it is evident that the events displayed confirm the warnings that Orwell shared in Nineteen Eighty – Four. This essay resembled the novel by George Orwell in many different ways, both exploit the government to manipulate the mind of an individual over the actual reality and both governments overuse and abuse there powers. In “No one died in Tiananmen Square” the government uses violence to stop the peaceful protesters. This is similar to 1984 because the totalitarian government in Oceania uses violence if they do not obey the rules of Big Brother. A quote from 1984, from part 2 of chapter 10 displaying violence for commenting thought crime is “One of the men had smashed his fist into Julia’s solar
The transition of power in China changed the dynamics of post-World War II relations. For the United States, the so-called “Loss of China” was a a catastrophe, not only because the US supported Chiang Kai-shek in the last few years, but also because it seems to be a victory for the Soviet Union and the global Communism. For China, in 1949 started for the first time in its history the possibility to build foreign relations without being “suppressed by unequal treaties” by western powers. But China‘s relations to other countries remained very complicated and complex.
Contrary to the finding that “income inequality increases socio-political instability” (Alesina and Perotti, 1993, p. 18) current levels of inequality in China seems to have little impact on the societal status quo. Although China has experienced massive number of social protests, about 180,000 to 230,000 in 2010 alone (Gӧbel and Ong, 2012, p. 8), these protests are motivated by “abuses of power and other procedural justice issues, rather than being fueled by feelings of distributive injustice and anger at the rich” (Whyte, 2012, p. 6). According to a research paper funded by the European Union (Gӧbel and Ong, 2012, p. 36), income inequality is not among the top five motivations for social protests which include land disputes and environmental degradation. This data is evidently incompatible with a survey finding that income inequality is too great for 95% of Chinese as opposed to only 65% of Americans. Barring survey inaccuracy, high levels of inequality in China so far does not translate to dissatisfaction that leads to outright mass protests and instability.