Nothing happened in Tiananmen Square.

If something had happened, whoever it had happened to would have definitely deserved it, but nothing happened. What are they saying happened?

CNN:

A model of the “Pillar of Shame,” a memorial to victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre that was controversially removed from a Hong Kong university in 2021, has gone on display in front of the European Parliament in Brussels.

Depicting a heap of contorted bodies and screaming faces, the statue was unveiled Tuesday as part of an exhibition of “forbidden art” that organizers said had been censored or “deemed subversive” by Hong Kong and mainland China.

The exhibition was hosted by Jens Galschiøt, the Danish artist behind the famous sculpture, and Kira Marie Peter-Hansen, a member of the European Parliament (MEP). A further six MEPs, including representatives from each of the parliament’s five largest political coalitions, were listed as co-hosts.

Galschiøt wrote on his website that installing the artwork outside the European Union’s main legislative building sent a “strong signal to China that its censorship does not apply in Europe.”

…

In a statement, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN that the country’s government has “long drawn a clear conclusion about the political turmoil that occurred in the late 1980s” and that “any attempt to discredit China will only end in failure.”

Why are “forbidden art” and “deemed subversive” in “scare quotes”? Everyone knows what these terms mean, and the EU also bans the exhibition of forbidden art that is deemed subversive.

Imagine the nerve of these people.

In Germany, a guy just got fined for a meme billboard making fun of leftist politicians who are shutting down farms. It was forbidden art that was deemed subversive.

America has a lot of forbidden art that is deemed subversive as well, it’s just that instead of fining you over it, they ban you from the internet, ban you from using banks or engaging in any financial activities at all, then probably sue you.

There is no moral high ground here. It’s ridiculous and sickening for the EU to act like they are making some kind of bold statement against Chinese authoritarianism. Imagine if the Chinese decided to put a giant A Wyatt Mann Holohoax cartoon in front of the People’s Hall in Beijing.

This would literally the exact same thing.

China could say “yeah they faked this Holocaust and in Europe you’re not even allowed to talk about it, so we’re putting up this monument to remember the West has no freedom.”

The Chinese government wouldn’t do something like that, because it would just be considered really rude and incendiary with no other purpose then to try to make people angry. What’s more: China doesn’t claim they don’t have censorship. They do say they have censorship, and directly outline what kinds of public speech are banned. Meanwhile, no one really understands what the lines are in Europe, but people definitely get fined and go to prison for speech a lot more in Europe than they do in China.

The European internet is much more censored than the Chinese one. In China if you post some comment that violates speech codes, probably no one will notice, or maybe they will delete the post and tell you to stop. Maybe eventually some cops will come to your house and say “hey, can you stop posting that stuff?” Virtually no one ever gets fined or imprisoned for speech in China. All across Europe, people are fined and locked up for memes constantly.

Besides the clear fact that the West is simply more committed to censorship than China, they censor so many different thing, and no one knows what is allowed. China exclusively censors certain speech critical of the government. The West censors:

• “Holocaust denial”


• “Antisemitism”


• “Racism”


• “Sexism”


• “Homophobia”


• Questioning the efficacy of vaccines


• Anything from Russia

None of that stuff is illegal in China. The West bans broad categories of thought and ideas that are held by a large portion, if not a majority, of their populations.

The EU was talking about totally blocking the Tucker Carlson interview with Vladimir Putin, saying it’s illegal for people to watch foreign leaders speak. No one had any idea that this was illegal until they started talking about it. I think it’s the same thing with the German billboard. No one knew that was illegal until they ripped it down and fined the guy. It’s just arbitrary.

But the biggest problem here is that it’s fundamental to any liberal democracy to allow freedom of speech. It’s in the in UN’s “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” cited as the establishing document of post-war Western values, as a founding principle of liberal democracy that people have a right to total freedom of thought and speech. China never made that promise, as they have a system that is ordered totally differently, based on cultural norms that are thousands of years old.

I would say “someone should go with a bullhorn and deny the Holocaust in front of this monument to freedom of speech,” but I would never advise anyone to do something like that, because you would just go to prison and the government/media would not acknowledge the Orwellian absurdity of arresting someone for speech in front of a monument installed to make a statement against censorship.

There is probably another angle here, where someone could go in front of the monument and demand China ban Holocaust denial: “I totally agree that China needs to legalize public conversation about something that happened in China in the 1980s, but more importantly, they need to pass laws making it a crime to talk about something that happened in Europe in the 1940s.”

You could then claim that “the EU is refusing to call on China to ban Holocaust denial, despite the fact that the Chinese internet is rampant with antisemitism and other forms of vile hate speech.”

Then add: “It’s also high time for China to ban anti-Ukraine propaganda, as this is a threat to our democracy.”

But no, don’t do that either. They will still just arrest you, seize your bank account, fine you, imprison you, etc.

It’s just so tiresome that everything is a lie.

This Gross Statue was Displayed in China for Over 20 Years

Just so you understand: this disgusting sculpture was on display in China for more than 20 years. The Chinese took full control of Hong Kong in 1999, and the statue was not removed until 2021, when the Chinese were forced to change laws in Hong Kong to prevent violent riots instigated by the United States.

Do you remember that? They were firebombing malls and attacking random old men on the streets? They set some old man on fire for telling them to stop vandalizing a train station?

(When he was in the hospital getting skin grafts, his poor old wife was interviewed by the media and she said she hoped “the rioters can stop their violent acts as soon as possible and not mess up Hong Kong.”)

Then the homosexual riot leaders were found meeting and planning riots at the US embassy in Hong Kong? Then the leaders flew to Washington to do a press conference with Nancy Pelosi?

Do you remember all that?

China had to change laws about political speech in Hong Kong in response to these riots. I don’t really see what else they could have done.

I guess they could have done what American-backed Egyptian leader General Sisi did when he seized power and just used live ammo on the protesters. That’s probably what I would have done – just declared martial law and told the cops to shoot anyone engaged in violence. But then the West would just start building more monuments about that.

(Please note: No Danish artists have made statues memorializing Sisi’s Rabaa massacre, where 800 people were gunned down for protesting in 2013, and to my knowledge, the EU has no plans to commission and install any such memorial.)

It was only after the new laws that were needed to address civil unrest that the statue was taken down. So, apparently, the statue was not considered to be that big of a deal by the Chinese. They were not so very shocked about how edgy it was.

It Wasn’t a “Massacre”

I think people just see the “tank man” photo and think the Chinese military just showed up at a protest and started killing people.

That’s not even what anyone says happened.

The protests in the square had been going on for three months, during which period the Chinese government was attempting to negotiate with them, even while many were violent. The protesters refused all of the offers of concessions that the Chinese government was giving, and so eventually – after three months, mind you – the government declared martial law to allow the military to clear the square of the protesters.

When the military went in, the mob attacked them. It was tens of thousands of people attacking the military.

China also doesn’t “deny” that this happened. What they deny is outrageous claims made by the West that “thousands of civilians were massacred.” According to China’s official version of this event, 300 people died, including 10 cops and 13 police who were killed by the rioters. They also say that 5,000 soldiers and police were wounded.

The guy in the tank picture was not run over. The tank stopped and soldiers just walked over and arrested him.

I guess you can believe that thousands of people died and the Chinese government is lying about the numbers, but I don’t really see what difference that makes. There were hundreds of thousands of people crowded in the main government square demanding a new government be installed, for three months, refusing the government’s attempts at negotiations. Further, you can call it a “massacre,” if you wish, but what are the cops supposed to do when they are shutting down a riot and people are attacking them, and actually managing to kill cops? Is that a “massacre”? Is that the right word?

Again, it’s up to you. You can believe it was 3,000 dead instead of 300, you can believe it was a “massacre.” But you can’t deny there were hundreds of thousands of people in central Beijing, mostly whining college students, demanding the government be abolished for three months and refusing to negotiate, and you can’t deny that when the military was sent in, some number of thousands refused to disperse and instead violently attacked cops and soldiers and killed several. The latter facts seem to be much more important than specific numbers of dead or whether it was a “massacre.”

Further, you cannot claim that the Chinese government “denies it happened.” Most of the basic facts are agreed on by the Chinese government and Western academics. What the West says is that the violent protesters should have been allowed to overthrow the government. This is simply not a reasonable assertion.

What do you think the US government would do if hundreds of thousands of people were gathered in Washington, DC, demanding the government resign, while engaging in various acts of violence? Do you think they would spend 3 months negotiating with them, while allowing them to remain gathered in front of the Capitol? Do you think Congress and the president would agree to resign and give control of the country over to the mob? Or would they clear the area? If, when they were clearing the area, people were attacking and killing cops and soldiers, do you think US cops would not use live ammo on them?

This is all just nonsense. It’s basic gibberish, this “Tiananmen Massacre” material. It’s an idiotic farce.