These are the sorts of people that deserve national holidays. Many of them come from problematic background, or had problematic politics, but when it mattered they showed up.
Acts like this, along with rebellion against malicious use of authority when believed to be necessary (Hugh Thompson Jr., etc), are heroes of humanity imho.
Xi Jinping was probably in a province near Taiwan not at all close to Beijing power, it was a long time ago. His family had seen some hardships in the political game.
Xi's father Xi Zhongxun was one of the Eight Elders [0] during the Deng era, and supported the Tiannamen crackdown. He was the Chairman of the Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee until 1993, and while the Chairman of the NPCSC (Wan Li) was in the US during the crackdown.
> China’s leader, Xi Jinping, was the little-known party chief of a city in the coastal province of Fujian during the unrest in 1989. But the PLA’s crushing of that unrest, and the failure of the Soviet army to do the same in Moscow in 1991, leading to the Soviet Union’s collapse, clearly left a deep impression. He has often referred to a critical lesson from it all: the PLA must remain the party’s army and it must be kept under control. It all helps explain Mr Xi’s relentless “anti-corruption” drives among the high command.
Xi was 36 years old in 1989, older than almost all of the current Politburo members. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had very minor roles at that time. Xi’s role was at least partly because he was a princeling - his father was a comrade of Mao Zedong from the old days.
Xi was a victim of the cultural revolution. His father was paraded as an enemy of the revolution, his mother was forced to denounce his father and his sister killed herself. Xi was sent to a rural village where he dug ditches and lived in a cave.
Makes his complete commitment to the Party that much more interesting. I think Chinese leaders see the path they took - always venerating Mao (unlike the Soviets who denounced Stalin) and taking brutal action against any who would challenge the party’s power (in Tiananmen, unlike Soviet parties) as vindicating the approach of trusting the Communist Party. They firmly believe that only the Communist Party can control China and make it strong. Any reform like what the Russians did would leave them weak, like Russia is.
Obviously we can’t read his mind, but I’d guess that he justifies the Cultural Revolution as the right thing because the Party cannot be questioned. If you question that it opens up a whole can of worms that leads to the weakening and destruction of the Party.
Either abroad or early career cadre in prefectures well outside of Beijing. What's more interesting is where were their parents doing during the Massacre.
I recommend reading Yashen Huang's "Rise and Fall of the E.A.S.T." [0] - it has a good overview of the cadre during Tiannamen - along with the dated but very comprehensive Tiannamen Papers [1]
To be perfectly clear, other generals had no such qualms. Many hundreds to thousands of student protesters were massacred by the Chinese Communist Party's People's Liberation Army tanks.
May his name be remembered and on our lips for ever, and may his memory be a blessing for his family.
It might help to include the name: Xu Qinxian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Qinxian
archive: https://archive.is/k388E#selection-1339.61-1339.70
video of the trial (6 hours): https://youtu.be/1RBV9i4jaPo?si=oesH721IFLnmzEcW
These are the sorts of people that deserve national holidays. Many of them come from problematic background, or had problematic politics, but when it mattered they showed up.
Gutsy move by whoever got it out of the archive and into Wu’s hands.
Acts like this, along with rebellion against malicious use of authority when believed to be necessary (Hugh Thompson Jr., etc), are heroes of humanity imho.
Out of curiosity, what were China’s current leadership up to during the Tiananmen Square massacre?
Xi Jinping was probably in a province near Taiwan not at all close to Beijing power, it was a long time ago. His family had seen some hardships in the political game.
Xi's father Xi Zhongxun was one of the Eight Elders [0] during the Deng era, and supported the Tiannamen crackdown. He was the Chairman of the Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee until 1993, and while the Chairman of the NPCSC (Wan Li) was in the US during the crackdown.
[0] - https://wk.baidu.com/view/5c474737ecf9aef8941ea76e58fafab069...
The article mentions where Xi Jinping was.
> China’s leader, Xi Jinping, was the little-known party chief of a city in the coastal province of Fujian during the unrest in 1989. But the PLA’s crushing of that unrest, and the failure of the Soviet army to do the same in Moscow in 1991, leading to the Soviet Union’s collapse, clearly left a deep impression. He has often referred to a critical lesson from it all: the PLA must remain the party’s army and it must be kept under control. It all helps explain Mr Xi’s relentless “anti-corruption” drives among the high command.
Xi was 36 years old in 1989, older than almost all of the current Politburo members. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had very minor roles at that time. Xi’s role was at least partly because he was a princeling - his father was a comrade of Mao Zedong from the old days.
Was Xi himself a participant in the atrocities of the Cultural revolution? He would have been 23 when it ended.
Xi was a victim of the cultural revolution. His father was paraded as an enemy of the revolution, his mother was forced to denounce his father and his sister killed herself. Xi was sent to a rural village where he dug ditches and lived in a cave.
Makes his complete commitment to the Party that much more interesting. I think Chinese leaders see the path they took - always venerating Mao (unlike the Soviets who denounced Stalin) and taking brutal action against any who would challenge the party’s power (in Tiananmen, unlike Soviet parties) as vindicating the approach of trusting the Communist Party. They firmly believe that only the Communist Party can control China and make it strong. Any reform like what the Russians did would leave them weak, like Russia is.
Obviously we can’t read his mind, but I’d guess that he justifies the Cultural Revolution as the right thing because the Party cannot be questioned. If you question that it opens up a whole can of worms that leads to the weakening and destruction of the Party.
Either abroad or early career cadre in prefectures well outside of Beijing. What's more interesting is where were their parents doing during the Massacre.
I recommend reading Yashen Huang's "Rise and Fall of the E.A.S.T." [0] - it has a good overview of the cadre during Tiannamen - along with the dated but very comprehensive Tiannamen Papers [1]
[0] - https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300274912/the-rise-and-f...
[1] - https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/liang-zhang/the-tia...
To be perfectly clear, other generals had no such qualms. Many hundreds to thousands of student protesters were massacred by the Chinese Communist Party's People's Liberation Army tanks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests...