China wants us to forget the horrors of Tiananmen as it rewrites its history

Journalists generally shy away from taking political or ideological positions and yet, since China has for 30 years tried to deny its crime, the simple act of writing about it unwittingly tips us into activism. In recent years this dynamic has not been confined to hot-button topics alone, as China retrofits its history into a vision that starts in the stone age and ends with the Communist party, a single continuum that serves to legitimise the current leadership and its narrative of the past, the present and the future. In this way, political no-go zones are scattered throughout the long millennia of Chinese history and scholars lament how much access to archives is being restricted, in particular for topics still little explored, such as the actions and fate of Chinese collaborators of Japanese invaders during the Second World War or issues that touch upon ethnic tensions, whether in inner Mongolia or Tibet.

Source: www.theguardian.com