Thirty-sixth anniversary of 1989 Beijing Massacre

 ’Tis the day again - June 4.

I thought the CCP's days were numbered on the morning of 36 years ago, after spending a night witnessing unthinkable scenes at Peace Gate (Hepingmen), less than 1 km from Tiananmen.

The collapse of the USSR firmed my belief.

Why was I so wrong? I was off because of the only reason beyond my wildest imagination - the free world, including the US, embraced the CCP, supported it, even started to follow its example in some sense at its own high cost.

Like many students of the pro-democracy movement who managed to escape to the free world after the massacre, my original plan was to return to China to participate in the first democratic election in Mainland China since WWII after the end of the CCP regime in a few years, one way or another. I held my Chinese passport for that day for a VERY long time before naturalizing me as a US citizen.

I have a lot of companies in this over-optimism. Gordon Chang gave the CCP 5 years in his famous 2021 book, The Coming Collapse of China. His reasoning was absolutely sound. Like me, he completely missed the West allowing the PRC to violate trade rules at will and pouring funds and technologies into the PRC at their own expense.

Instead of being crushed, the "Chinese model" is so attractive that "democratic" countries in Africa, South America, and even some in Europe (e.g., Orban's Hungary) are trying to follow it. Even Trump admires its massive state power and grandiosity. Trump has longed for a military parade like what Beijing frequently has.

However, I have never changed my basic assumption - the CCP's totalitarian regime will end. It will be very quick once it happens. The middle school dropout is a godsend accelerator.

One of many photos that I took in May 1989 with my first camera, Huashang, made by Northwest Optical Instrument Factory(西北光学仪器厂, a defense factory). I bought the camera at the factory's store in Xian on a field trip.