Deafening silence

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." A sentence from George Orwell's novel "1984," a grim depiction of a totalitarian state. This sentence is also entirely apposite for the way the Chinese leadership continues to address the violent suppression of the democracy movement which took place a quarter of a century ago.

Control of the present

The Chinese government makes very plain that it asserts control of the present. It permits no version of history that differs from the officially sanctioned one. Officially, a "counter-revolutionary uprising" was quashed in the night of June 3-4, 1989, re-establishing stability and warding off chaos.

It is forbidden to remember that, 25 years ago, millions of people marched through Beijing and other cities demanding freedom of speech, co-determination and the rule of law – in short, democracy.

There is silence about the fact that those 52 days of protest in the spring of 1989 were peaceful and non-violent. There is also silence about the power struggle that was going on at the time within the politburo. Silence about how, when the hardliners prevailed in this power struggle, the army was deployed against its own people.

Everything about the spring of 1989 is taboo. An entire population has been subjected to enforced amnesia. The full force of the political machine is brought to bear on anyone who resists this attempt to control the past. Amnesty International has compiled a list of some 50 people who have been taken into custody or placed under house arrest in connection with the anniversary.

Nationalism and capitalism

Today, hardly anyone is still able to imagine the far-reaching political reforms the liberal wing of the Communist Party wanted to initiate before its overthrow in 1989. The General Secretary of Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, had put press freedom on the agenda, and even the separation of the party from government offices. All this was crushed by the tanks on Tiananmen Square.

Back then, under the leadership of party patriarch Deng Xiaoping, the Communist Party decided against freedom and in favor of dictatorship and oppression. The sole and most important aim of politics became ensuring that the Communist Party retained its power. To this end it abandoned all its ideological principles and became the party of state capitalism.

The ideological void was to be filled by nationalism – and the chance of making money. This political approach facilitated an economic miracle. But it also facilitated corruption that went all the way up to the very highest ranks of the Party. It created a society with one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world. And it left behind a plundered and poisoned environment.

Remembering is forbidden

The Chinese have been subjected to brainwashing on an unprecedented scale. The central message is that China and the Communist Party are inseparable. From this point of view, any criticism of the Communist Party is also criticism of China. It is considered unpatriotic if it comes from within, and an aggressive attack if it comes from without.

China is expending vast resources on the surveillance of its own people and on keeping them under control. The Communist Party spends more on internal security than it does on national defense. Now, in the context of the 25th anniversary of the violent crackdown of the democracy movement, all its resources are being mobilized to nip every attempt at commemoration in the bud.

Because, for the Communist Party, the experience of spring 1989 still harbors a dangerous thought: A different, freer, more democratic China would have been possible – and it still is.