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West Still Miscasts 1989 Protestors

James Kynge has written an insightful article on the Tiananmen anniversary in today's Financial Times.

"The truth is that the students in the square had only the haziest understanding of western-style democracy. To the extent that the protests were directed at abuses of an existing system by an emerging elite, they were motivated more by outrage at the betrayal of socialist ideals than by aspirations for a new system. The mood in the square was at least as much conservative as it was activist."

I encourage you to read the entire article here. It's well worth the effort.

UPDATE: Brendan O'Neill explains here how both China and the West have distorted the truth about the Tiananmen Square protests and the massacre that followed.

Posted on Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 4:03 PM | Comments (1) | Return

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