[quote] WHEN the first flames flared around the theatre’s stage, many of the excited Chinese children watching must have thought it was all part of the show.
Within minutes 288 of them were dead, a tragedy that has haunted their parents for more than a decade but was forgotten by many as China began its headlong rush to prosperity.
It is not forgotten any more, thanks to a band of internet campaigners who have exposed the shameful truth: the schoolchildren perished because they were ordered to sit down in their theatre seats so that Communist party officials could leave first.[/quote]
A horrifying testimony to what happens when freedom of press is restricted and leaders hold themselves above the law. What a cowardly, cowardly thing…
Maybe like very young kids they trusted the adults who were supposed to be looking after them? Or maybe even worse, they were intimidated and made to stay in their seats?
it seems in the run-up to the Beijing limp pricks some real focus (by outside organisations) is being brought to bear on human rights in china…things is going to get real tense over there and the more they try and keep the lid on it the greater the pressure will be…
I also wrote a long letter to the Taipei Times. I sure hope they run it. If everyone in China now knows about this, why shouldn’t this knowledge spread through the West also? It seems a deep truth in human psychology that the more powerful an entity is perceived to be, the more effort each person puts into not offending such entity.
[quote=“gao_bo_han”]I also blame the teachers who stood by and allowed it to happen. The fact they died as well does not excuse them.
Bunch of cowards the lot of them (the adults).[/quote]
The teachers were in an impossible position: Do what the Party asked them to do and sacrifice the kids, or disobey, get the kids out (if they were lucky), and likely face arrest, torture, or even death for themselves and their family at the hands of the Party.
China under the CCP has the worst human rights record in the world. It is an insult to the long, rich tradition of the Olympic Games that they are being held in Beijing next year. This article saddened me, but the saddest part is that twisted shit like this happens everyday in China and due to the absolute control the CCP holds over information in the country, it rarely gets out to the rest of the world. There are still many people who don’t know what happens to Falun Gong practitioners in China, the AIDS victims in Henan, the truth behind the organ trade, or the plight of China’s 1 billion (that’s 9 zeros) peasants in the countryside who are among the world’s poorest people who have no access to power, adequate food, clean water, jobs, opportunity, and basic health care. Taiwan truly is a miracle.
True, true, the 1936 games were another mistake everyone realized later, but to be fair to Hitler (not that he at all deserves it) his human rights abuses didn’t really start until 1938. Most of the persecution against the Jews et al before then would best be categorized as civil rights abuses. In the case of the CCP, it has a 60 year history of persecution against the people of China and Tibet and now the rest of the world is turning its back on it. A great message to the rest of the world if you ask me. What is it now? Estimates of about 80 million dead in China because of the CCP and its policies? There’s hope yet for North Korea and Sudan to host the games in 2016.
