Date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, with government using increasingly sophisticated tools to censor its discussion

There is no official death toll but activists believe hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed by China’s People’s Liberation Army in the streets around Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s central plaza, on 4 June 1989.

The date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, and the Chinese government employs extensive and increasingly sophisticated resources to censor any discussion or acknowledgment of it inside China. Internet censors scrub even the most obscure references to the date from online spaces, and activists in China are often put under increased surveillance or sent on enforced “holidays” away from Beijing.

New research from human rights workers has found that the sensitive date also sees heightened transnational repression of Chinese government critics overseas by the government and its proxies.

  • CatDogL0ver@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 day ago

    This is just my personal experience:

    ~I was talking to a few young Chinese. They were after born after the massacre happened.~

    “Why are Hong Kong people are so full of themselves and rebellious? They think they are better? (Derogatory comments…”, cheating among themselves, happily.

    I couldn’t help and interrupted, “Some young promising Hong Kong students were murdered, beaten and kidnapped under the mainland China. You can’t blame them for not being defensive.”

    Immediately they resorted to their memorised response, “Do you have any resources to back up what you said? The official death count was zero.”

    Of course there was no “official” news resources. China suppresses the news media.

    "It is the same as Tiananmen massacre. You won’t find any “official resources " but everyone knows people were killed.”

    Another one retorted, “The official number is zero. What official resources you have to backup your claim?”

    It was useless to talk anymore at that moment. I left. My encounter probably would be on their “report.”

    • KuroiKaze@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      20 hours ago

      I find it pretty rare to meet Chinese people like that. Most of the ones I meet know that stuff happened isn’t that the government covered it up but they don’t think that the government covering things up is all that unusual or newsworthy.

  • Timoruz@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    42
    ·
    1 day ago

    Was genuinely thinking of walking in front of Trump’s military parade.

  • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    22 hours ago

    Oh is this the terrible bad country we shipped our entire industrial base to?

  • Deflated0ne@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 day ago

    Love the propaganda around this. Its very dramatic and all. But here in the west its held up as some big thing. The rest of the video never gets played.

    • lud@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 day ago

      You should(n’t) see the gruesome pictures. China is likely very happy that the tank man picture became famous when there were LOADS of other horrible images .

        • lud@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          24 hours ago

          That video is really low res. Do you have any sources that prove that the moving object is a tank and that the people are students?

          But honestly it doesn’t really matter because running over people because they are protesting a dictatorship is fucking gruesome.

          • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            edit-2
            23 hours ago

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre

            Demonstrators attacked troops with poles, rocks, and molotov cocktails; Jeff Widener reported witnessing rioters setting fire to military vehicles and beating the soldiers inside them to death.[178] On one avenue in western Beijing, anti-government protestors torched a military convoy of more than 100 trucks and armored vehicles.[179] They also hijacked an armored personnel carrier, taking it on a joy ride. These scenes were captured on camera and broadcast by Chinese state television.[180]

            Good old peaceful demonstration strikes again. Luckily those students were not doing anything violent such as holding up a Palestine flag. Then the US media would tell us how violence against them is fully justified

            • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              21 hours ago

              So because the US media justifies the killing of Palestinians, China is justified in killing student protesters, is that what you want to say?

              Also, you seem to be arguing that since some demonstrators are acting violent, shooting at, running over and oppressing student protesters are also justified? That sounds like the same logic Zionists use to justify killing Palestinians because some of them might be Hamas. You seem to agree with Zionists quite a lot.

              • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                5
                ·
                13 hours ago

                Armed rioters burning cops alive are not “student protesters”.

                The US media somehow manages to switch the two around for their propaganda purposes.

                You apparently cannot tell the difference either.

                • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  13 hours ago

                  And yet the student protesters are being run over despite your claim that only armed rioters are burning cops alive. The exact same reasoning Zionists use to justify killing Palestinians. Like I said, you think exactly like a Zionist, which is funny.

            • kshade@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              22 hours ago

              Nice use of selective quoting, the situation had already escalated at that point. From your source, one paragraph before yours:

              The advance of the army was again halted by another blockade at Muxidi, about 5 km west of the square. After protesters repelled an attempt by an anti-riot brigade to storm the bridge, regular troops advanced on the crowd and turned their weapons on them. Soldiers alternated between shooting into the air and firing directly at protesters. Soldiers raked apartment buildings with gunfire, and some people inside or on their balconies were shot.

              And, from the beginning of the section:

              At 9:30 p.m, this army encountered a blockade set up by protesters at Gongzhufen in Haidian District, and made an attempt to break through. Troops armed with anti-riot gear clashed with the protesters and began firing rubber bullets and tear gas, while the protesters in return threw rocks and soda bottles at them. Other troops fired warning shots into the air, which was ineffective.

              • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                13 hours ago

                My argument was related to the APC. Which is factually true.

                Your quote however is very selective.

                On the evening of 2 June, an accident occurred in which a PAP jeep ran onto a sidewalk, killing three civilian pedestrians and injuring a fourth. This incident sparked fear that the army and the police were trying to advance into Tiananmen Square.[159] Student leaders issued emergency orders to set up roadblocks at major intersections to prevent the entry of troops into the centre of the city.[160]

                On the morning of 3 June, students and citizens intercepted and questioned a busload of plainclothed soldiers at Xinjiekou. Isolated pockets of soldiers were similarly surrounded and interrogated.[161][56]

                The soldiers were beaten by the crowd, as were Beijing security personnel who attempted to aid the soldiers. Some of the soldiers were kidnapped when they attempted to head for the hospital.[160] Several other buses carrying weapons, gear, and supplies were intercepted and boarded around Tiananmen.[160]

                At 1 pm, a crowd intercepted one of these buses at Liubukou, and several men raised military helmets on bayonets to show the rest of the crowd.[162] At 2:30 pm, a clash broke out between protesters and police.[163][160] The police attempted to disperse the crowd with tear gas, but demonstrators counterattacked and threw rocks, forcing them to retreat inside the Zhongnanhai compound through the west gate.

              • lud@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                7
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                21 hours ago

                Who could’ve guessed that people turn violent when you start shooting them 😱

            • lud@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              21 hours ago

              Has anyone claimed that the protests were entirely peaceful? Of course some turn violent when you roll in with your army and riot police gun blazing.

              And thanks for confirming that it wasn’t a tank.

              There really are no excuses for the killing of dozens if not hundreds of civilians and protestors.

              And the protests were entirely peaceful to begin with but of course China couldn’t let that continue.

              The censorship of the event also speaks a great deal about who’s fault it is.

              • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                5
                ·
                edit-2
                13 hours ago

                The protesters on the square did not get shot. The Western media confirms nobody of the peaceful protesters on the square got killed.

                Violent rioters who stoned and burnt police did get killed. On day4. There weer already multiple police killed on day3. Even Western media acknowledges all of what I am saying happened.

                The censorship of the event also speaks a great deal about who’s fault it is.

                The amazing amount of misinformation being spread here says a lot more about how insane the Western brainwashing machine is.

    • Ledericas@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      21 hours ago

      in china they censor it on internet searches. thats why alot of thier netizens use proxies and anti-detect browsers.

  • Jhex@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 day ago

    Maybe I’ll take Taiwan’s word on this one…

    Whatever the US says, you just know it’s posturing hypocritical bullshit

    • BmeBenji@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 days ago

      That’s exactly what I was thinking. I feel like we’re months away at most

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmings.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        Timing will be important. They’ll want the big violence to break out next summer, so he can declare Martial Law, and suspend the 2026 Midterm election.

        America has never missed an election, even during the Civil War. Suspending an election is a big, bright red, flashing line. They do that, and it’s on for real.

        • Brandonazz@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 day ago

          It’s already on for real. Hypernormalization is a bitch. That might shock us all for an afternoon but we’d be back to the same discourse a week later.

      • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 day ago

        The death toll of Tiannenmen riots is around 300. You would think it was 300.000 from the amound of posts we see about it.

        Current casualty count in Gaza is about 200 times higher than Tiannenmen.

        • BmeBenji@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 day ago

          I just mean to say I don’t see any sort of barrier preventing the US government from sending the military in to massacre its own civilians

  • unphazed@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    41
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    2 days ago

    Meanwhile Oklahoma telling kids the 2020 election was rigged under state law.

        • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          14
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          1 day ago

          Whataboutism is literally the appeal to hypocrisy fallacy. It’s a fallacy because the appeal is done in place of a proper argument that addresses the original issue. The very purpose of this fallacy is to distract from the original issue and to dismiss criticism without ever addressing it by bringing up something irrelevant to the topic at hand and accusing others of hypocrisy.

          • Corn@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            8
            arrow-down
            11
            ·
            edit-2
            1 day ago

            The point isn’t to distract, it’s to provide context so the accuser can’t create an inaccurate framing. The atomic unit of propaganda isn’t lies, it’s emphesis.

            If every week, a right-wing German posted about how many gays Britain murdered, imprisoned, or castrated during the 40s, it would be borderline deceitful for other lemmy users not to provide the full context of what Germany was doing to gays at that time (and what West Germany continued to do until the 1970s).

            Same deal when we get the occasional zionist talking about the plight of gay Palestinians. Yes, they have their own struggle, but there is a very specific and obvious purpose behind a zionist bringing it up.

            • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              11
              arrow-down
              9
              ·
              1 day ago

              You’re being dishonest. You didn’t provide any context or made any remark regarding framing or context. In fact, you made no argument at all. You just brought up an entirely irrelevant subject for the sole purpose to distract from the original issues and dismiss the criticism being brought up by appealing to hypocrisy. It’s literally the textbook definition of the fallacy.

              Same deal when we get the occasional zionist talking about the plight of gay Palestinians.

              This is a good example, you’re exactly like them in this case.

              • Corn@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                6
                arrow-down
                10
                ·
                edit-2
                1 day ago

                The subject is “whataboutism”, or when people bring up similar, but far worse things done by liberal institutions in response to supporters of liberal institutions accusing communists of doing bad things to show that the supporter of the liberal institution doesn’t actually give a shit about the event they’re crying about and is simply using it as a pretext to justify hostility against that communist state, victims included.

                • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  8
                  arrow-down
                  5
                  ·
                  1 day ago

                  That’s a wild assumption you just made up based on literally nothing. But the fact that you need to make up such assumptions is ironic, because it shows that yourself are a hypocrite. You support these atrocities and the regimes who committed them and so you perceive people calling out these acts as unjustified “hostility” rather warranted criticism. Since you’re admitting that you don’t actually care about the atrocities being committed, that means the only purpose you would bring up anything to do with “liberal institutions” is to be fallacious, which is exactly the case here.

                  The entire purpose of bringing up entirely irrelevant subjects is to distract from the original issue and dismiss criticism. There’s no context, there’s no argument, there’s no point. You’re simply mad that the regime you support is being criticized and as a desperate attempt to divert attention away from the criticism, you bring up irrelevant topics and accuse people of being hypocrites for their criticism of the original topic… even that doesn’t negate the validity of their criticism whatsoever.

                  When people call you out on your fallacious argumentation, they’re telling that the logic you’re using is inconsistent. If you’re actually ignorant enough to not understand what the fallacies are or why they’re bad then that’s a different issue, but if you’re aware what they are and why they’re bad and still choose to be annoyed then that means you’re disingenuous. It means you’re arguing in bad faith from the get go, which is an indication that the beliefs you are trying to defend are flawed to the point where you can’t defend them on their own merits.

        • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          1 day ago

          Ah yes, the state is paying me to call out idiots on Lemmy for using fallicious argumentation and inconsistent logic. Which state is paying me? Who knows, but that’s the fun of making up random baseless accusations when you have nothing of value to provide.

  • Krono@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    157
    arrow-down
    34
    ·
    2 days ago

    As an American I think it’s helpful to put this into some sort of perspective.

    Things the US won’t forget:

    • Tiananmen Square (thousands dead)

    Things the US will forget:

    • Korean War (3mil civilian dead)

    • Vietnam War (2mil civilian dead)

    • Iraqi War (1mil civilian dead)

    • Violent overthrow of East Timor (widely considered a genocide)

    • Violent overthrow of Afghanistan (twice, over 1 mil dead)

    • Violent overthrow of Nicaragua

    • Violent overthrow of Grenada

    • Violent overthrow of Panama

    • Violent overthrow of Libya

    • Coup d’etat of Guatemala

    • Coup d’etat of Iran

    • Failed Coup d’etat of Syria

    • Failed Coup d’etat of Indonesia

    • Many failed Coup d’etat attempts on Cuba

    • Coup d’etat of Congo

    • Coup d’etat of Laos

    • Coup d’etat of the Dominican Republic

    • Coup d’etat of Iraq

    • Coup d’etat of Brazil

    • Successful Coup d’etat of Indonesia (1 mil dead)

    • Coup d’etat of Chile

    • Multiple Coup d’etat of Bolivia

    • Coup d’etat of Haiti

    • Multiple Coup d’etat attempts on Venezuela

    • Coup d’etat of Palestine

    • Mass civilian casualties, destabilization of many governments, people subject to a lifetime of torture without a trial, all under the War on Terror

    This list could be so much longer, but I gotta get to work.

    • trumboner@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      12 hours ago

      Hey, the difference is, you can post this list here, and nothing will happen to you.

      Become a Chinese citizen, and then post that single bullet item about the TS incident in China, on a Chinese social media. Then see what happens.

      • Krono@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        5 hours ago

        That may be true, but it doesn’t excuse the list at all.

        My country is responsible for the majority of international violence since WWII. I find that morally unacceptable.

        I make posts like this because I want my country to do better. But the sad reality is we have yet to learn our lesson. We have been aiding and abetting an ongoing Holocaust for almost two years now.

    • foggianism@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 day ago

      Add to the list the US support of the Israeli war crimes currently going on in Gaza. Just yesterday they vetoed a ceasefire and delivery of aid proposition in the UN.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      14
      ·
      1 day ago

      That shit gets brought up all the fucking time, in their own threads. Notice how people don’t bring up Tiananmen Square, Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong, the Uyghurs, or the many other atrocities the CCP has committed whenever an American atrocity gets mentioned.

      • Krono@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        Your comment ignores the context that the US is doing anti-Chinese propaganda here, and there is no parity.

        Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot, and China was releasing PR statements on every anniversary of every US atrocity. They would still be issuing multiple statements every day.

        • lud@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          7
          ·
          1 day ago

          How is the US doing “anti-Chinese propaganda”?

          • acargitz@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            1 day ago

            Every time the US president says “CHAYYYNNA”, I consider that anti-Chinese propaganda.

            • lud@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              24 hours ago

              What? What that fuck are you talking about and how is it relevant to the tiananmen square massacre?

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          1 day ago

          China is also doing anti-American/anti-West propaganda. It’s just favored differently because of different cultural values of the target audience. Still stinks the same.

      • acargitz@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        All the fucking time? Really? When was the last time the Coup d’état against Aristide was discussed around here?

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 day ago

          Post about it on it’s anniversary then. Don’t bring it up as a whataboutism in unrelated threads.

          • acargitz@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            1 day ago

            I didn’t bring up anything, the comment you responded to did. My comment was my first intervention in this thread and I was responding to you specifically. You said that things like that get brought up all the time. I am asking you for the receipts. When was the Haitian coup d’état brought up before today?

    • PugJesus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      55
      arrow-down
      21
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Things the US will forget:

      Korean War (3mil civilian dead)

      Vietnam War (2mil civilian dead)

      Iraqi War (1mil civilian dead)

      Imagine thinking that the US has forgotten any of these when they’re a constantly pressure on the cultural zeitgeist even literal decades later. Or, for that matter, that the Korean War is in any way comparable.

      Violent overthrow of Afghanistan (twice, over 1 mil dead)

      Twice? Christ, tell me you aren’t talking about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Not to mention that the ‘overthrow’ of ‘Afghanistan’ the second time would rely on recognizing the Taliban, and not the democratically-oriented Northern Alliance which was fighting them at the time, as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

      • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        Not trying to be confrontational or pedantic (there’s enough bickering in here) but it’s important to state that the Korean War is quite literally called “The Forgotten War”. In fact, it’s more important to point out that it wasn’t even a War, but considered a “police action” that claimed the lives of up to 3 million civilians (link).

        Council on Foreign Affairs

        Truman acted without seeking congressional authorization either in advance or in retrospect. He instead justified his decision on his authority as commander in chief. The move dramatically expanded presidential power at the expense of Congress, which eagerly cooperated in the sacrifice of its constitutional prerogatives.

        Robert A. Taft of Ohio, one of the leading Republicans on Capitol Hill at the time, took to the Senate floor on June 28 to argue that “there is no legal authority for what he [Truman] has done.” Nor could Truman argue that the Korean conflict didn’t constitute war in a constitutional sense, even if he did downplay the significance of his decision. (At a press conference on June 29, Truman denied the country was at war, prompting a journalist to ask, “would it be correct…to call this a police action?” Truman answered simply, “Yes.”

        Truman in the end acted because he believed, contrary to what the framers envisioned and the historical record showed, that as commander-in-chief he had the authority to order U.S. troops into combat… Truman was able to establish the precedent that presidents can take the country to war, though, because members of Congress were unwilling, Taft’s complaints notwithstanding, to defend their constitutional power from executive encroachment.

        You can’t look at those statements and not make parallels to what’s going on in America today with the executive branch trying to sequester even more power. Ironically just recently saw a pretty decent video on the war by Mr. Beat

        The War Americans Forgot About

        edit: forgot an S

      • Spzi@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        22
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        2 days ago

        Yeah, just recently I rewatched Apocalypse Now. And I’ve never been to the U.S. or Vietnam. I agree, this is pretty much alive in cultural memory, not forgotten.

      • mlg@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        2 days ago

        and not the democratically-oriented Northern Alliance which was fighting them at the time, as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

        You’re joking right

        Please tell me this is sarcasm bruh

        • PugJesus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          2 days ago

          You’re joking right

          Sorry, do you not remember who the de-facto leader of the Northern Alliance was?

      • Krono@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        2 days ago

        The “pressure on the cultural zeitgeist” you speak of is just “shoot, then cry”. The victims are forgotten.

      • Corn@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 day ago

        If I had a nickle for everyone who either stopped watching Full Metal Jacket after Lee Emery gets shot or watched the husks of men, who just got massacred by a child defending her home, marching through the burning town while singing children’s songs, and thanked the next veteran they met for fighting for freedom.

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Allowing the government to be taken over by fascists makes any “remembering” of horrific events pretty meaningless anyway. In the context of government, not individuals.

    • Gsus4@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Most of that looks right, but

      Violent overthrow of East Timor (widely considered a genocide)

      Ok, this was Indonesia, with murican quiet assent, but still, don’t give other countries a pass on these things to make them look clean.

      Many of these also involved the local elites going to the US for help. e.g. The draft UN resolution for the no-fly zone in Lybia was produced by the Arab League and backed by the African Union, which pressured russia and China not to veto it.

      • Krono@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        2 days ago

        It is not my intention to give other countries a pass. Indonesia is guilty of genocide in the case of East Timor; the US is guilty as well.

        The genocide in East Timor is analogous to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

        Both genocides are not conducted by US personnel, but the majority of arms are supplied by the US. The US gives international legitimacy to the genocidal party, while running defense for it’s atrocities. The genocide in East Timor was ended by a phone call from the US president, and I am of the firm belief that the genocide in Gaza could be ended by a similar call. Previous Israeli atrocities were ended by calls from Reagan and Bush Sr.

      • nednobbins@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        “Whataboutism” can occasionally be an honest critique of a spurious argument.

        When it’s just a link on it’s own, it’s almost always cover for hypocrisy.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        2 days ago

        Some commentators have defended the usage of whataboutism and tu quoque in certain contexts. Whataboutism can provide necessary context into whether or not a particular line of critique is relevant or fair, and behavior that may be imperfect by international standards may be appropriate in a given geopolitical neighborhood. Accusing an interlocutor of whataboutism can also in itself be manipulative and serve the motive of discrediting, as critical talking points can be used selectively and purposefully even as the starting point of the conversation (cf. agenda setting, framing, framing effect, priming, cherry picking). The deviation from them can then be branded as whataboutism

        Wow. Fascinating. Thanks for the link.

      • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        arrow-down
        17
        ·
        2 days ago

        This makes perfect sense, it’s one thing for Taiwanese and Chinese people to remember it but its absolute hypocrisy for the west to comment. Especially as they fund the genocide in Gaza and Western Liberals make excuses for it.

        • arrow74@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 day ago

          I can critize and dislike the US involvement in Korea, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, AND the Tiananmen Square massacre.

          I can rank which ones killed more people, but no one should be committing any crimes against humanity like these regardless of scale

        • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          19
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          2 days ago

          No, it doesn’t. Only people who are full shit use and defend this fallacy. People who have principles call out shitty behaviors and actions whenever they see them, that’s because principles are universal. If you selectively choose when to apply them, then you don’t believe in them.

          • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            13
            ·
            2 days ago

            If you acturally call out genocide and shitty practices wherever you see it than its being principled. If you only call it out when a “bad” country does its hypocrisy, and tbh I have seen people do the later far more often while claiming the former.

            Tell me, when Western Europe plunders the global south to subsidize their social programs do you complain? Or when the Zionist Occupation slowly takes more land away from the natives? What about the western funded dictators committing genocide across the third world and selling their nations for scraps?

            Do you acturally call for freedom, an end to the exploitation, or do you demand a compromise? Do you demand native Palestinians give up half their land to the occupation? Africans half their resources to Europeans? And dictators to kill half as many minorities?

            • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              10
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              2 days ago

              When somebody supports said “bad” countries, they’ll view any instance of these countries being called out for any shitty actions as hypocrisy. What this actually shows is that these people are in fact hypocrites themselves. If they were principled, then they would’ve acknowledged the shitty actions of whatever country is pointed out and moved on. Instead, they go on they go on the brainless rants that are filled with fallacies to distract from the original issue and dismiss criticism, misinformation, and endless crying about how the country being called out is a victim for the atrocity they committed. These rants don’t change the reality of the issue being raised originally.

              • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                8
                arrow-down
                14
                ·
                2 days ago

                This entire post is about western governments who are currently engaging in genocide calling out an event in China that if you look at the proper context is bad but not an atrocity

                • lud@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  5
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  23 hours ago

                  No the post is about the Chinese massacre.

                  By all mean call out genocide but it’s not relevant in post.

                  Don’t try to dismiss criticism of one massacre and its continuous censorship by bringing up another massacre.

        • Brandonazz@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          14
          arrow-down
          7
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          It’d be a bit like if China and it’s entire sphere once a year went crazy commemorating the Kent State or Haymarket Massacre. They wouldn’t be wrong to say these are bad things, but it’d clearly be in service of some ulterior motive.

          • 5too@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 day ago

            Honestly, even with an ulterior motive, I see no reason they shouldn’t.

            • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              1 day ago

              The thing is, only the US and West do this shit of constantly complaining about other countries and celebrating their historical tragedies every year. And it’s not a coincidence that they’re also the countries to invade and constantly engage in imperialism all around the world the most, and have the capacity to, with hundreds of military bases around the world.

              It’s such obvious propaganda against foreign enemies, especially ones we want to fight. You think it would make it super obvious how propagandized Americans are, but they don’t see the hypocrisy at all because of that very propaganda.

              What would be the point in China bringing up the Haymarket massacre or Kent state every year? And for that matter, what’s the point in the US bringing up the Tiannamen Square every year?

              Glass houses indeed.

              • Katana314@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                1 day ago

                The US brings up its own horrible events all the time.

                I learned about The Trail of Tears, the era of segregation, and of the KKK in my history class in America. We make conscious efforts to be aware of and criticize our own faults - as well as those of other nations.

                There is currently LOTS of criticism of the US government for its participation in the massacre in Palestine. Claiming otherwise is lying. China is relatively unique in that it has committed atrocities, and refuses to allow anyone in its own country to acknowledge them. Both countries have done bad things. One country recognizes those facts and attempts to learn from them.

              • Brandonazz@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                1 day ago

                I know your question is rhetorical, but hypothetically China could do that with the aim of whipping up their population into hating the American government more, making them more willing to swallow local authoritarianism and foreign imperialism framed as national defense. That’s basically what the US is doing in the current arrangement, only reversed.

            • 5too@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              1 day ago

              The implied issue with that phrase is you risk your own glass house being pelted, correct? The glass house, in this case, being atrocities each government is implicated in?

              I’m fine with all the atrocities being called out. Otherwise, how do we learn not to do them anymore?

              • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                16 hours ago

                I want to belive that people here genuenly call out atrocities everywhere but they dont, if you personally call out evil in every place it resides then I respect you.

      • Krono@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        2 days ago

        Yep that’s exactly my point, the US is doing Whataboutism when it issues these PR stunts to condemn Chinese atrocities.

    • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      And we know the extent of US involvement in these coups and conflicts because the US declassified the info, becauase all info becomes declassified eventually.

      When is the Dictatorship of China going to admit that this happened, when will they declassify the internal documents about this atrocity they were responsible for?

      That’s the problem people have with the Chinese government. They can’t even acknowledge reality because they seek to eventually change the records of what really happened to pretend they did no wrong.

      • Krono@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        2 days ago

        I agree that declassification is a great thing, but it is not so black and white. Not all info becomes declassified eventually, so much is covered up and destroyed.

        For example, much is known about the My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War. Most of this information is known due to declassified documents. But these declassified documents also mention that there were over 100 My Lai-level massacres that occured, most of which we know nothing about. Army Chief of Staff Westmoreland was quoted saying we do a “My Lai each month”.

        One of the largest, codenamed Speedy Express, reportedly killed 11,000 people, and was covered up at the highest levels.

        • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          11
          ·
          2 days ago

          I don’t care about your whataboutism meant to deflect

          When is the Chinese government going to admit that they were responsible for the Tiananmen Square Massacre?

          If you can’t answer that then fuck off tankie

          • Krono@lemmy.today
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            5
            ·
            1 day ago

            My best guess is that the Chinese government will admit fault long into the future, when most of the accountability and backlash has already faded into history.

            Which is no different than how the US has handled many of the atrocities I mentioned.

            When will the US acknowledge and release info on the 100s of Yemeni and Pakistani civilian targets that were destroyed by drone strike? When will the US release the warcrimes reports from the War on Terror? Does the US even still have these warcrimes reports, or were they destroyed (as whistleblowers and Amnesty International have suggested they were)?

            If you can’t answer questions like these without resorting to cries of “Whataboutism”, then fuck off hypocrite.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        16
        ·
        2 days ago

        And we know the extent of US involvement in these coups and conflicts because the US declassified the info, becauase all info becomes declassified eventually.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout

        According to Victor Marchetti, a former special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a limited hangout is “spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting—sometimes even volunteering—some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further.”

        US declassification falls squarely into this domain. What gets released into the public record is enshrined as “The Truth” and what gets omitted is reserved to the domain of “Conspiracy Theory”. Thus a guy like Allen Dulles can sit on the committee that investigates the assassination of the President and author the copy that the CIA was in no way at fault or otherwise involved in the actions of a disgruntled former agent’s actions against the Chief Executive who personally fired Dulles three years earlier.

        That’s the problem people have with the Chinese government. They can’t even acknowledge reality

        The Chinese Communist Party has its own version of Limited Hangout and goes to some length to assert that the riots in Tienanmen were the result of outside agitation, the civilian death toll was minimal, and the reforms that followed succeeded in restoring trust in the national government.

        Westerners choose to ignore the official party line and rely on the equally unreliable narrations of participants who were fully opposed to the party, heavily invested in an insurgent opposition, and outspoken in their desire to abolish the CCP and have its leadership executed.

        So you end up with a bunch of smug liberals denouncing Chinese state media as controlled, while regurgitating talking points that came straight out of the John Birch Society and the Falun Gong.

        It’s propaganda all the way down. Nobody is giving you a complete and accurate picture of events. Any serious scholar must reconstruct events by bits and pieces, sifting through the enormous amounts of FUD. And when their work is completed… good luck finding it, because vanishingly few media moguls have an interest in promoting something that is insufficiently sensational.

    • Gorilladrums@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      27
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      People like you are evidence that Marxism is failed ideology that cannot be defended by it’s own merits. You know it’s a failure, which is why you resort to fallacies and misinformation.

      • vga@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Yeah, the amount of hatred Americans are fermenting on their own country is just mind-boggling. It’s like their number one wish in the world is to fail.

  • selkiesidhe@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    The US won’t “forget” unless China pays the Dipshit-in-chief some payoff money. He’ll then EO that it never happened.