It seems a lifetime or two ago. Twenty two years have past and the exact details of what went on that night has faded somewhat but I still remember the feeling of dread and impending disaster. I recall how it all began…a warm early summer evening, we had just finished dinner and all of a sudden the phone rang. It was Tina in Beijing to my godfather, “He gave out orders to send in the People’s Army to Tiananmen Square! His kids are on their knees begging Deng to rescind the order and he is refusing to do so.” That phone call is when our vigil started and we were glued to the front of that television for hours to come. The phone didn’t stop ringing from that moment… HK, Beijing, Shanghai… updates poured in. Trying to assimilate and digest all these reports had my head spinning. I remember looking at my godfather and said “How’s this possible?” He replied “It’s possible and the aftermath is even going to be even worse. Any head that isn’t agreeing to this will have to watch out for their life. Believe me, they will be silenced sooner or later. The country is not ready for this kind of challenge and they will crush any who threaten their very existence. The students that head this demonstration are not stupid but the people who follow them will suffer or die in the cross fire.” Needless to say, on both counts, he was right.
Twenty two years later, unfortunately I still don’t think that the country has moved towards democracy or acknowledging human rights. Just seeing first hand some of the “high government officials” that come to Vegas, and just how they act or how full of themselves they seem, I am still disgusted. They sneak in money to gamble, they eat, drink and whore like there is no tomorrow because the government is paying for it. Isn’t there any accountability? When President Obama comes, he at least don’t have these ridiculous request for a specific type of Mercedes limo, which doesn’t exist in the US. Once recently, I couldn’t help myself but snicker and clap my hands, because a group had to cancel their trip because there was a brief corruption crackdown in China and they “chickened” out.
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