‘Fool’s errand’: Why China censors rubber duckies on Tiananmen anniversary (original) (raw)

On May 1, 1989, one month before Chinese troops killed hundreds of protesters in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Zhiyang, made his case for compromise in a private session of the Politburo. "Democracy is a worldwide trend," he said, according to former Washington Post reporter Philip Pan's excellent book "Out of Mao's Shadow." Zhao went on: "If the party does not hold up the banner of democracy in our country, someone else will, and we will lose out. I think we should grab the lead on this and not be pushed along grudgingly."