China’s New Lost Generation

China’s New Lost Generation: "Near dawn on June 4, 1989, Liu Xiaobo helped save the lives of thousands of university students in Beijing. The night before, conservative Communist Party leaders such as Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng had ordered the People's Liberation Army to clear Tiananmen Square, which had been occupied by students for 50 remarkable days that spring. Huge numbers of Beijing's citizens openly supported the pro-democracy student movement and many thousands of these citizens began sleeping in the streets to prevent authorities from moving against the students. No one imagined that the army would smash through these crowds with Armored Personnel Carriers, crushing people to death, and then fire indiscriminately with tank-mounted machine guns and rifles wielded by foot soldiers. A final bloodbath appeared imminent. Huddling together, students stoically wrote out their wills and final letters to their families. Facing genuine danger, along with the three other 'junzi' (noble figures), Liu Xiaobo negotiated the peaceful exit of the students from the Square. But the army's paroxysms of violence had not ended: As the students walked in a column toward the university district, four tanks careened forward and crushed eleven of them. For people who know about Liu Xiaobo, his Nobel Peace Prize…

"