home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
TIME: Almanac 1990
/
1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
/
time
/
061989
/
06198900.050
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1990-09-22
|
1KB
|
39 lines
COMMUNISM, Page 14China's Dark Hours
In the tense early-morning hours of June 4, hope died and fear
was born. Thousands of combat troops stormed Tiananmen Square,
transforming the Woodstock-like encampment of young students
calling for democracy into the bloodiest killing ground in
Communist China's history. The images of defiance and devastation,
the voices of determination and despair, shook the world. Here,
protesters attacked troops with poles and rocks. There, a student
lurched, his dazed face soaked with blood. Everywhere, the bodies
fell, how many is still not known, while fires blazed, signaling
the dawn of China's uncertain new world.
"Our call for democracy has reached the living rooms of largely
apolitical people. It has planted seeds of the ideas of freedom and
democracy and human rights."
-- A student leader
"We are not afraid to die. But we have already lost a lot of
blood. We must leave the square."
-- Hou Dejian, a popular songwriter
"The sound of gunfire terrified me, but the sight of wounded
people made me very angry. The massacre was a very cynical idea."
-- A scholar
"Tell the United Nations, tell the world what has happened in
China. Tell them that the Chinese government is killing the Chinese
people."
-- A worker
"China is dead."
-- A youth