Modern China's Move Towards Freedom--Tiananmen Square

Here is the famous gate at Tiananmen Square, which separates the large square in Beijing from the Forbidden City.  The day that I was there it was impossible to get this photo.  The place was teaming with people, most of them domestic tourists from other parts of China visiting the attractions of their capital city.  There is no hint of what happened in this spot 25 years ago.

In the summer of 1989 thousands of Chinese students gathered to protest the lack of freedom in their country at the time.  They were seeking three kinds of freedom: economic freedom, political freedom, and religious freedom.  At that time none of those were available.  The world was shocked when China moved in tanks and literally rolled over students--there has never been an admission of the death toll, and since the Chinese government controls the internet in the country, any mention of the protest is expunged from the record there.

In the 25 years since, there has been an astounding change in economic freedom in China, with a rapidly expanding middle class and widespread education available to what was a largely illiterate country in 1989.  The ability to choose your spiritual beliefs and follow them has also become widely available in China today--Confucius' house is open to the public, Buddhist temples are reopened, and people openly display their religious beliefs.  So all that remains is political freedom, which is no where in evidence.  Mao ruled China with an iron fist.  Millions of people died of starvation under his rule, and yet there is much admiration for him today.  He brought the country out of a feudal time and set in motion what modern China has become.