On the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre that left hundreds of Chinese protesters dead on the streets of Beijing, the Chinese government continues to deny any wrongdoing in its handling of the June 4, 1989 protests. Despite predictions that Tiananmen would spell an end to Communism in China, the growing superpower continues to rule with an iron fist two decades after workers and students fought for government transparency and democracy.

In anticipation of the landmark anniversary, the Chinese government has attempted to suppress internet chatter and prevent domestic access to the barrage of foreign coverage to be published in the coming days. Where it can’t stave off unfavorable press, Beijing has attempted to get ahead of the story, ardently selling its own version of events internationally and to its own people. In live broadcasts and newspaper correspondence, the West saw Tiananmen as an attempt by the Chinese government to quell dissent and keep China red. Chinese leaders, however, have called police casualties martyrs and have banned families of murdered protesters from mourning publicly. It’s attempted to control the story and funnel Chinese nationalism in its favor with draconian tactics to censor dissenters and counter would-be pro-democracy organizers.

China has not, however, been entirely successful in quieting dissent. This year, a memoir surfaced from the late Zhao Ziyang, the general secretary of the Communist Party during the Tiananmen crisis, criticizing the government’s decisions. Written by Zhao while under his 15 year house arrest sentence for sympathizing with student protesters, the memoirs recount the lead-up to the Tiananmen massacre and the Paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s unilateral decision to send troops in to break up the protests. Recorded on cassette tapes that Zhao clandestinely handed off to diplomat friends, the memoirs are a valuable “final word” from Ziyang, who was silenced and kept under close surveillance until his death in 2005.

As the anniversary nears, a number of protest organizers who have sought exile in Europe, Australia and North America have come out of the woodwork to tell their stories. Shao Jiang, a student organizer in Tiananmen Square, recalls police brutality against unarmed protesters and civilians. Even after his group had agreed to peacefully leave the square, he says, Chinese troops moved in with tanks that he never imagined “the government could turn against its own people.” Speaking at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on Tuesday, Wang Dan, a hunger strike leader and the most visible student organizer in Tiananmen Square, voiced hope that the internet generation would breathe fresh life into the democratic movement. According to Wang,

There are two Chinas now. One is the real and practical China, which is totally controlled by the CCP. The other China is a China based on the Internet. That’s the base of the new social forces. It is the hope for civil society, and civil society is the hope for democracy.

photo credit: d’n'c’s Flickr photostream (creative commons)