This week the Communist Chinese Party is holding a congress at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. The purpose of the congress is to cement Xi Jinping's genocidal, imperialist autocracy. This post explains the centrality of Tiananmen Square to the Chinese dictatorship, and to the Chinese people victimized by the dictatorship.
In brief, ever since the proclamation of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1949, Tiananmen Square has symbolized the rule of the Chinese Communist Party. The proclamation of communist rule was issued from Tiananmen, which the Party intended to transform into an icon and an instrument of its absolute power. That power reached a zenith in 1966, when millions thronged to hear Chairman Mao incite the Cultural Revolution. Yet a decade later, Tiananmen Square became the site of mass protest against Mao's tyranny. Then in 1989, the Square was occupied by students demonstrating for democracy; the students were guarded by workers throughout the city who set up barricades to attempt to stop a military invasion. The military's brutal assault demonstrated to the world that the Chinese Communist Party rules by violence and not by consent—as in 1949 and 1989, and so too today. As Mao and his party intended, Tiananmen Square does perfectly exemplify the "New China" they created: a totalitarian kleptocracy who power is maintained by force against the democratic will of the people.
