Tiananmen Square was a watershed moment in the People Republic of China’s history. It changed the way the communist country went about its business in the coming years and how but all the hopes of having a political-liberal regime in mainland-China breathed its last with the quashing of the pro-democracy movement.
Last year marked 30 years of the bloody massacre where the Chinese government launched an operation against student activists and teachers who supported the rendezvous, forcing them to flee the country and seek refuge abroad.
In what became known in the West as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops with assault rifles and tanks killed at least several hundred demonstrators trying to block the military’s advance towards Tiananmen Square. The number of civilian deaths has been estimated at anywhere from hundreds to thousands, although, China never released an official death toll from the incident.
In defiance of China’s belligerent stance, the little land-locked European nation of the Czech Republic has always been at the forefront. The Czech Republic has been poking the dragon in the eye for a while now, and one of the most interesting things about their resistance against China is the reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre in signages erected in Prague. This has been done so that the world and especially, Chinese civilians, do not forget the horrors of the communist state.
The Czech Republic put up signs about the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre for their Chinese tourists pic.twitter.com/wygGBAf2OQ
— Jack Posobiec, IWO (@JackPosobiec) April 26, 2020
Tiananmen Square is the last nail in the coffin of any country’s relations with China but it looks like the Czech Republic is not afraid to go one-on-one with the dragon.
China has been defiant on nearly all major international platforms of the events of June 4, 1989, and to date justifies it. The event is highly contentious and Beijing goes to great lengths to censor the content related to ‘Tiananmen Square’ in China as well as around the world.
In China, June 4 has been nicknamed “internet maintenance day” for the number of websites that go offline around the anniversary, their owners deciding that being dark is safer than accidentally publishing something which could provoke the ire of the authorities.
Last year, the Chinese government forced several international tech companies to play by its rules around Tiananmen Square, including Twitter and Apple.
Twitter, which is time and again referred to as one of the proxies of China had suspended several accounts for engaging in “platform manipulation,” including “commentary about China.”
Bowing to Beijing’s censorship demands was another tech giant conglomerate–Apple. The Silicon Valley-based company removed artists and songs that refer to the Tiananmen Square massacre. One of the bands, a Hong Kong duo called Tat Ming Pair, released a Tiananmen tribute called “Remembering is a Crime” which was instantly removed by Apple.
But Prague’s Mayor, Zdenek Hrib has repeatedly wrestled with China and has not been shied away from giving a piece of his mind to Beijing. Since assuming the power of the capital city–the mayor has condemned China as an ‘unreliable partner’, criticized its treatment of ethnic minorities like Uighur Muslims, and promoted ties with Taiwan by meeting Chinese dissenters.
In the wake of rising Wuhan virus cases in the world, which started from the Chinese soil—Hrib is seen taking the fight to the Chinese and his latest gutsy ‘Tiananmen Square’ hoarding move is being seen in a similar light.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Hirb referring to China’s aid to the European nations in the wake of Wuhan virus had said, “This isn’t a humanitarian gift or aid, from China’s perspective, it’s business.”
The Czech Republic was among the numerous European countries to receive Wuhan virus test kits and other medical supplies from China in recent weeks.
But out of the 300,000- rapid Wuhan virus test kits ordered by the Czech Republic, up to 80 per cent of the test kits were found faulty and not working properly. The test kits, worth 54 million korunas (€1.83 million), showed false positive as well as negative results. Such duplicity must have irked Hirb.
China is responsible for the entire world plummeting into darkness. It lied and lied about the Wuhan virus by colluding with WHO and therefore it is high time that nations around the world start calling-out China for repatriations.
The iconic image of the Tank-man standing his ground in front of the Chinese tanks is one of the most recognizable photos of the entire human civilization. The Czech Republic seems to be the Tank man in the current world scenario and more countries need to muster up the courage to take on the dragon, for it cannot be allowed to go unscathed–once the dust settles on the deadly pandemic.
