"A strong signal to China": Model of the "Pillar of Shame," a memorial to the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, was unveiled outside the European Parliament in Brussels

There's a bit of a difference between the likes of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, etc, who committed atrocities primarily in the days of colonialsm and have since drastically changed — they've acknowledged what they've done, and to my knowledge apologised for it — and China.

China hasn't become less authoritarian since the massacre, doesn't acknowledge it even happened, and certainly hasn't apologised. The sad truth is, they'd likely do it all over again. Because they're just as bad now as they were then.

I hate the "but whatabout..." whenever someone calls out China on murdering their civilians and even committing an ongoing genocide.

If you actually think China and nations such as Britain, Canada, France, Spain, Germany, etc are the same, you frankly need to get your head examined.

Nobody is saying you have to be perfect. Obviously every past society has flaws and pockmarks. The point is acknowledging past wrongs and seeking reconciliation and seeking to improve.

Denying atrocities makes atrocities worse, because it means you will repeat the errors.

why not cut ties because of the people in power? people in power today are not the ones that made these crimes, except china i'm stupid

Yeah! I mean, if things were shit it in the past it seems silly to do anything to fix it now! Duh! 🤪

/s, obviously…

I tend to block anyone with an @hexbear on sight even if they're making an innocuous comment. It's takes a certain type of person to choose that instance. I'm at like 30 blocks including their instance and yea my feed is solid.

I've got 53 users blocked, plus 2 instances and a dozen or so communities on otherwise sane instances. Lemmy is nice now.

The instance I'm on is (was?) federated with hexbear. As soon as instance blocking was added as a feature I blocked hexbear and lemmygrad. It was a drastic improvement.

Far-left authoritarians. In this case, CCP supporters/apologists

From Wikipedia:

The term "tankie" was originally used by dissident Marxist–Leninists to describe members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who followed the party line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Specifically, it was used to distinguish party members who spoke out in defense of the Soviet use of tanks to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring uprising, or who more broadly adhered to pro-Soviet positions

Authoritarians who typically take an anti-western stance and champion Russia and China.

Because the EU can't ban sales of products in China.

There should be at least some companies that don't rely on prisoners or other companies that use forced labour.

@BennyHill500, there are no such things as communism or capitalism (or any other systems), there are many different variations of them.

Tiananmen Square Massacre

When the initial presence of the military failed to quell the protests [at Tiananmen Square], the Chinese authorities decided to increase their aggression. At 1 a.m. on June 4, Chinese soldiers and police stormed Tiananmen Square, firing live rounds into the crowd.

Although thousands of protesters simply tried to escape, others fought back, stoning the attacking troops and setting fire to military vehicles. Reporters and Western diplomats in Beijing that day estimated that hundreds to thousands of protesters were killed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and as many as 10,000 were arrested.

Emphasis mine.

Well it is, so there is that...

Given the disastrous legacy left behind by the Soviet Union, there is no need to build a narrative. Communism is bad and failed spectacularly at everything it's meant to achieve.

No supporting Genocide while criticizing others just makes you a giant hypocrite. Europe is not helping do something they are criticizing others

We have no moral high ground to stand on to criticize others anymore. Every single time China starts some BS about their human rights we bring up the Uyghurs and Tianennmen Square.

Now every time we bring up human rights while supporting Genocide we are nothing more than giant hypocrites.

We needs to look in the mirror instead of at China.

Bruh. I'd consider running a genocide to be a special case...

You'd defend the companies selling weapons to Hitler in WW2 to commit the Holocaust?

Yes yes, nihao and let's fight against the Koreans and japanese like in ancient times. Bring the fire lances and rocket propelled arrows for the lulz.

Believe it or not, one can think the Tiananmen massacre was bad, and also think colonization was bad.

I'm just not a fan of countries' moral posturing about other countries' exactions while sweeping their own under the rug. And I'm french, so my own country is definitely part of this shitty hypocritical club.

The students at Tianmenn protested for China becoming democratic and gainst China becoming capitalist. So it is quite strongly linked to Western commercial and colonial interests.

China developed just as the West wanted, by adopting capitalist economics without democratic systems or worse democratic ownership of the means of production.

Just that China then outplayed the West at their own game.

whataboutism is a healthy response to hypocrites.

Still no statue though

Yes we did genocide and killed millions of people. But it's okay because we can openly talk about it. No big deal.

This seems to be the core of your argument. Not very convincing if you ask me.

It's just the usual clumsy wumao attempt at whataboutism

With regards to Belgium: the colonial museum has been revamped, schools teach what happened in the Belgian Congo, and no one's going around defending or idealising King Leopold who presided over the worst atrocities. Belgian nationalism barely exists, so that hasn't been a thing in living memory anyway.

Also, what happened in Congo was widely derided even at the time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casement_Report

In Northern Ireland, during the troubles, 28 unarmed civil rights protestors were shot (14 killed) on Bloody Sunday, by the British army. They covered it up then, lying that the soldiers had been shot at and that some of the protestors were armed. That was back in 1972. None of those soldiers faced any charges until 2016. And to this day none have been prosecuted. Similarly there has been no charges levied on anyone that put those soldiers there that day. Even though that same battalion was guilty of killing 11 civilians in the Ballymurphy massacre just seven months beforehand and of brutalizing protestors outside of Magillian Internment camp a week beforehand.

Over 50 years later and there are still British MPs that fight bitterly against any British soldiers facing any prosecution for crimes they committed in Northern Ireland against British Citizens.

The Tienanmen square massacre was way worse, no doubt. But don't fool yourself into thinking that any country, especially those that colonized large swaths of the planet, have a clear conscience.