Tiananmen Square revisited !

A quarter of a century ago a Communist party visionary from it's top echelon could see disaster for China unless it adopted a degree of moderation.   Hu Yaobang was not seeking revolution but merely relaxation on the suppression of free speech and the certainty of rule of law.   With his encouragement, students massed in Tiananmen Square and peacefully demanded change.

China's leaders panicked - and the world saw live footage of tanks rolling into the square and troops shooting unarmed youths to maintain the state's stranglehold on every aspect of life for citizens of the Communist state.    The events of June 3, 1989 are now expunged from newspapers and the general media - and even social media has a form of censorship that disallows search engines to  access that subject.  Hu Yaobang was gently eased from the inner circle - and died in obscurity.

The danger he foresaw is now becoming real.   China has taken long strides on the world stage and a vast segment of it's people have made the change from subsistence  peasants to a wealthy middle class supplying the world's needs.  This "  great leap forward " was fuelled by cheap labour attracting factories to churn out goods but now pay packets are rising - and the world is turning to other nations that can meet demand - at a lower unit cost.

So far the masses have been tolerant of China's iron grip on their lives.   They are aware that their leaders are personally corrupt and the leading families enjoy immense wealth and the legal system simply rubber stamps the wishes of the inner circle.   The danger is the possibility that the " good times " may slow.  If competition from other low wage countries puts Chinese workers out of a job this complacency and tolerance will evaporate - and the people will demand change - and that frightens the Communist party elite to take desperate measures.

A time honoured distraction to internal worries has been to beat the war drums of nationalism.   If people can be convinced that their country faces a threat all manner of privations are accepted as the price they must pay for security - and now China is rattling sabres and threatening action against it's neighbours in both of the South and East China seas.

The People's Liberation Army ( PLO ) and it's air and naval arms is by far the strongest military force in the Asian area and it dwarfs the defences of Korea, Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines.   It seems to be betting it's judgement that it can push to the limits without provoking the immense American war machine into intervening.   The danger is that a miss step on either side could plunge the world into a dangerous Asian war.

Hu Yaobang could see the coming aftermath of endless repression twenty-five years ago and tried to influence a gradual softening to turn China into a civilized nation.     That opportunity was lost in the  carnage of Tiananmen Square.    The expression of  " having a Tiger by the tail "  seems to neatly sum up the position China's leaders now find themselves in !