After several revolutions that Wei deftly summarizes, the specter of government repression loomed once more. By the spring of 1989, students demanded more freedom and transparency. The dictatorial government of Li Peng and Deng Xiaoping rumbled warnings of violent repercussions at the rebellious students. But the students' actions for democracy inexorably pushed the rigid wall of opposition, culminating in the international trauma at Tiananmen Square, following a long siege of starvation by many participants.
As Americans watched the actions half a world away, we heard that the only way the students could coordinate the movement was by receiving fax messages from outside China. Many students had been allowed to travel to the United States for purposes of higher education. They could see and hear live reports of what was happening in Beijing and communicate with colleagues back home. No Internet chat or Twitter facilitation, but crude printed pages worked perhaps as well.
Liang was not exactly at the heart of the SDM, but she knew the leaders well and paints an understandably sympathetic picture of the events. She also provides a satisfying follow-up, letting readers know what has happened to the major players whose actions she traced.
Amusingly, the Chinese government has once again tried to cut off the flow of information concerning democratic movements and, presumably, the world's remembrance of the events of 20 years ago. On June 2, 2009, Reuters reported,
Access to the popular social networking service Twitter and email service Hotmail was blocked across mainland China late on Tuesday afternoon, two days before the twentieth anniversary of a bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square.DDSS in China.
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