Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

After Tiananmen Square: The Younger Generation

Aired June 04, 2001 - 09:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In other world news today, 12 years ago, Chinese troops opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators around Tiananmen Square. Today, most of China is forbidden from openly commemorating the massacre and memories of the crackdown have faded, especially among the younger generation.

CNN's Lisa Rose Weaver has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a generation that strives for prosperity and leisure -- goals that are a lot more appealing than pushing for political change.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We actually don't pay much attention to politics. We are terribly busy. I was born in the '80s, so I don't have any idea about this at all.

WEAVER: Some are more willing to reach back 12 years and recall the movement for political reform. Was demonstrating on the streets a good way to get the point across?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes, it was affective in reducing corruption. It raised people's awareness about the problem.

WEAVER: Questions about how the Chinese government dealt with the Tiananmen protests, better to say nothing at all.

In the years since the student-led protests were crushed, a new generation of more conservative youth has emerged, intent on safeguarding their benefits.

JIA QINGGUO, PEKING UNIVERSITY: There are more opportunities to go to study abroad. There are more opportunities to get into business to make money. There are more opportunities to do other things, including joining the government. But I would say that they are also politically more sophisticated.

WEAVER: And more nationalistic. Anti-American demonstrations were encouraged when a U.S. airplane bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. After an American surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet, people mourned the pilot who had become a national martyr. This symbol from 1989 seems hardly relevant now. No one fought to preserve the flagstones of Tiananmen Square where the Goddess of Democracy once stood and where the tanks rolled. Some of those stones have been moved, turned into building material for a drive-in movie theater in a suburb of Beijing.

(on camera): The official verdict remains that in 1989 a small number of agitators tried to use the movement to overthrow the Chinese government. Very few will publicly challenge that version of events. Tiananmen Square taught most Chinese that it's safer to forget about the past and most have just moved on anyway.

Lisa Rose Weaver, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM AT www.fdch.com