Latest news with #MaoZedong
Kyodo News
4 hours ago
- General
- Kyodo News
China's Tiananmen incident remembered in exhibit moved to California
KYODO NEWS - 3 hours ago - 10:33 | All, World An exhibit commemorating the victims and survivors of the military crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters in Beijing in 1989 has opened near Los Angeles, having been relocated from its previous space in New York. The June Fourth Memorial Exhibit, which launched in El Monte on Monday ahead of the 36th anniversary of the incident, displays the names of nearly 200 people who died in the violent crackdown, alongside physical artifacts from the Tiananmen protests. A tattered banner from the time with phrases critical of then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is displayed next to an interactive piece where visitors can deface an image of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China. Activists from the 1980s student movement who attended the exhibit's opening stressed the need for remembrance and accountability from the Chinese government. Jin Xiuhong, an activist during the protests, said any hope for reform was crushed after the events of June 1989. "After 36 years, we must let the world know the Chinese Communist Party is not savable," said Jin, a 70-year-old resident of Seattle. She considers the Chinese government "the root of evil." She is hopeful that U.S. President Donald Trump, whom she says fellow dissidents also support, will advance policies that bring about the end of the party. The exhibit's director, Wang Dan, was also a participant in the Tiananmen protests. Relocating the exhibit to an area near Los Angeles came about due to the high cost of rent in its previous space in New York. Wang, 56, said the exhibit itself has not changed much from the version displayed in New York, but he wants to expand its impact, making the El Monte location a hub for cultural and educational events. Jason Han, a volunteer with the exhibit, said he learned about the violence against protesters while attending university in China in the early 2000s. Information on the topic is less available to students in China due to increased censorship, Han said. In April 1989, students at universities in the Chinese capital, acting as part of a coalition of citizen and worker groups, began a months-long protest in Tiananmen Square. Their demands of the government varied, but the exhibit centers around student desires for economic reform and democratic freedom. According to the exhibit, the military violently dispersed the protesters on June 3 and the following day, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.
The Mainichi
6 hours ago
- General
- The Mainichi
China's Tiananmen incident remembered in exhibit moved to California
EL MONTE, California (Kyodo) -- An exhibit commemorating the victims and survivors of the military crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters in Beijing in 1989 has opened near Los Angeles, having been relocated from its previous space in New York. The June Fourth Memorial Exhibit, which launched in El Monte on Monday ahead of the 36th anniversary of the incident, displays the names of nearly 200 people who died in the violent crackdown, alongside physical artifacts from the Tiananmen protests. A tattered banner from the time with phrases critical of then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is displayed next to an interactive piece where visitors can deface an image of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China. Activists from the 1980s student movement who attended the exhibit's opening stressed the need for remembrance and accountability from the Chinese government. Jin Xiuhong, an activist during the protests, said any hope for reform was crushed after the events of June 1989. "After 36 years, we must let the world know the Chinese Communist Party is not savable," said Jin, a 70-year-old resident of Seattle. She considers the Chinese government "the root of evil." She is hopeful that U.S. President Donald Trump, whom she says fellow dissidents also support, will advance policies that bring about the end of the party. The exhibit's director, Wang Dan, was also a participant in the Tiananmen protests. Relocating the exhibit to an area near Los Angeles came about due to the high cost of rent in its previous space in New York. Wang, 56, said the exhibit itself has not changed much from the version displayed in New York, but he wants to expand its impact, making the El Monte location a hub for cultural and educational events. Jason Han, a volunteer with the exhibit, said he learned about the violence against protesters while attending university in China in the early 2000s. Information on the topic is less available to students in China due to increased censorship, Han said. In April 1989, students at universities in the Chinese capital, acting as part of a coalition of citizen and worker groups, began a months-long protest in Tiananmen Square. Their demands of the government varied, but the exhibit centers around student desires for economic reform and democratic freedom. According to the exhibit, the military violently dispersed the protesters on June 3 and the following day, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.
Kyodo News
7 hours ago
- General
- Kyodo News
China's Tiananmen incident remembered in exhibit moved to California
KYODO NEWS - 5 minutes ago - 10:33 | All, World An exhibit commemorating the victims and survivors of the military crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters in Beijing in 1989 has opened near Los Angeles, having been relocated from its previous space in New York. The June Fourth Memorial Exhibit, which launched in El Monte on Monday ahead of the 36th anniversary of the incident, displays the names of nearly 200 people who died in the violent crackdown, alongside physical artifacts from the Tiananmen protests. A tattered banner from the time with phrases critical of then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is displayed next to an interactive piece where visitors can deface an image of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China. Activists from the 1980s student movement who attended the exhibit's opening stressed the need for remembrance and accountability from the Chinese government. Jin Xiuhong, an activist during the protests, said any hope for reform was crushed after the events of June 1989. "After 36 years, we must let the world know the Chinese Communist Party is not savable," said Jin, a 70-year-old resident of Seattle. She considers the Chinese government "the root of evil." She is hopeful that U.S. President Donald Trump, whom she says fellow dissidents also support, will advance policies that bring about the end of the party. The exhibit's director, Wang Dan, was also a participant in the Tiananmen protests. Relocating the exhibit to an area near Los Angeles came about due to the high cost of rent in its previous space in New York. Wang, 56, said the exhibit itself has not changed much from the version displayed in New York, but he wants to expand its impact, making the El Monte location a hub for cultural and educational events. Jason Han, a volunteer with the exhibit, said he learned about the violence against protesters while attending university in China in the early 2000s. Information on the topic is less available to students in China due to increased censorship, Han said. In April 1989, students at universities in the Chinese capital, acting as part of a coalition of citizen and worker groups, began a months-long protest in Tiananmen Square. Their demands of the government varied, but the exhibit centers around student desires for economic reform and democratic freedom. According to the exhibit, the military violently dispersed the protesters on June 3 and the following day, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.
New York Times
a day ago
- General
- New York Times
What We Can Learn About Xi's Rule by Studying His Father's Life
One June evening in 1976 when a neighbor visited Xi Zhongxun, a former vice premier who had been exiled to a factory in central China, he found the old man drinking cheap liquor and crying alone in the dark. Mr. Xi explained that it was his son Xi Jinping's birthday. The old man felt guilty that Jinping and the family suffered so much during the Cultural Revolution. A month later, Xi Jinping, who had just turned 23, visited his father, who made him recite two of Mao Zedong's famous speeches from memory: 'On Contradiction' and 'On Practice.' The Cultural Revolution ended that fall with Mao's death. Xi Zhongxun would go on to become a national leader in the 1980s with a reputation as a reformer. His son Xi Jinping would become China's top leader in 2012 and chart a more authoritarian course than any leader since Mao. One of the most enduring debates — and, for many people, deepest disappointments — in contemporary China is why Xi Jinping did not live up to his father's image. After both were persecuted under Mao's autocratic rule, why has Xi Jinping's reign come to echo Mao's cult of personality rather than the more open, institutionalized governance that his father most likely would have preferred? In a new biography of Xi Zhongxun, the China scholar Joseph Torigian addresses this question and contributes greatly to our understanding of China. The book, deeply researched, tells the story of a man torn between his humanity and his loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, offering insights into the party's workings and the human suffering that shaped his son's governing style and conception of power. 'Some may wonder why Xi Jinping would remain so devoted to an organization that severely persecuted his father,' writes Mr. Torigian, an associate professor at American University and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. 'Perhaps the better question is, How could Xi Jinping betray the party for which his father sacrificed so much?' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Express Tribune
a day ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
The secret of China's success
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.Lao Tzu An opium-addicted nation that remained under occupation by six foreign powers is now the world's second largest economy. How China managed to transform itself from a weak and fragile country to a global power house needs to be understood in the light of the Lao Tzu's quote above. It was under Mao Zedong that mainland China emerged as an independent country in October 1949. The policy of 'great leap forward' from late 1950s to early 1960s focused on reforming the country from an agrarian to an industrial economy. Resilience, simplicity, efficiency, hard work, intelligence, integrity, commitment and dedication shaped China's road to modernisation which got an impetus during Mao's leadership and the 'open door policy' of Deng Xiaoping. Pulling 500 million people from below the poverty line by 1980s; focusing on industrialisation; augmenting exports; and planning to improve the quality of life of people shaped characteristics of the world's second most populous country. In the first decade of Communist China (1949-59), the Soviet Union was the principal backer of China. But following a rupture in their alliance and severance of assistance from Moscow, Beijing was on its own and succeeded in miraculously emerging as the world's second largest economy by 2015. The secret of China's incredible success against all odds has another dimension: maintaining peace with its neighbours. The last war which China fought was in January 1979, with Vietnam. Since then it has not been in an armed conflict with any of its neighbours. Following the 1989 visit to Beijing of Mikhail Gorbachev, the then Soviet leader, and the collapse of the USSR, the relations between China and Russia transformed into being partners instead of adversaries. China's border issues with India barring the October 1962 war remained under control. Another secret of China's success is its concentration on 'soft power' with focusing on trade, aid, investments, technology and diplomacy instead of 'hard power' in the form of military intervention and armed conflicts. The Chinese leadership knows that its military involvement will jeopardise its vision to emerge as the world's biggest economic power. China wants to have peace with its neighbours so that it can focus on its economic progress and development. China is not a perfect country and has its own fault lines like democracy, human rights, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang. For critics, the price paid by the people of China for their economic development and progress is democracy because Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the only party to rule the country - something that negates fundamental principles of democracy like political pluralism and multiparty system. CCP believes China cannot afford western democracy, as under a multiparty system, it may not remain in power which will open a Pandora's box like what happened in the wake of Gorbachev's policy of reforms in the then USSR. The issues of Tibet and Xinjiang as well as alleged human rights violations cannot be dealt with if CCP loses its control over power. For how long CCP and its powerful People's Liberation Army (PLA) will be able to deal with the fault lines in China depends on how strong the current leadership is and how success it is in retaining its strides in education, infrastructure, technology, research and development, communication, transportation and manufacture of exportable items. China's secret of success against all odds is an interesting topic of discussion and needs to be analysed from three sides. 1) from an impoverished economy in 1949, China pursued a 'great leap forward' in 1960s and by following an open-door economy policy in late 1970s emerged as an economic power by 2000. Within a span of 21 years, China used its human resource to compete with other global economies. For instance, in 1979, China's foreign exchange reserves were around 1 billion dollars, per capita income was 270 dollars and GDP was 139 billion dollars. In 2025, China's foreign exchange reserves are 3.2 trillion dollars, per capita income is 25,000 dollars and GDP is 18.5 trillion dollars. If China maintains the pace of its economic progress and development, it will surpass the US as the world's biggest economy. China's miraculous turnaround in just 50 years is an example for other countries, particularly Pakistan, to follow. During 1960s and 1970s, Pakistan was ahead of China in terms of per capita income, economic growth rate and foreign exchange reserves. PIA was the only non-communist airline to fly to Communist China. But, after just 40 years, China is now far ahead of Pakistan. 2) Chinese leadership focused on domestic production instead of importing items. For decades, Chinese way of life was simple whereas Pakistan was an import-driven economy and relied on foreign loans. When China was able to emerge as a successful economy, only then it allowed imports of luxury items. The same policy was pursued by India too. Not an import-driven economy, India adopted a policy of self-reliance. The lesson Pakistan can learn from the Chinese success is: peace with neighbours; focus on exports; self-reliance; and investment in education, health, infrastructure development, housing and public transport to life the quality of life of the public. Planning, time management and efficiency are major characteristics of the Chinese leadership. The CCP has a zero tolerance for corruption and nepotism. 3) Maximum use of human and natural resources is another major reason behind China's success. Pakistan is the world's fifth most populous country whereas China is second from top. However, Chinese population is not a liability, it's an asset. When Communist China, despite its international isolation and the conflict with the then USSR, was able focus on human and social development, it worked wonders. Till late 1970s, China was not even a part of the Olympics, but now it is known for its best performances in global sports. All in all, it is the leadership that matters in the context of progress and development of a country.
