Free Republic

[Your M. Div. shares this news item, released by AsiaNews just after Pascha, 2010, as a compliment to the previous commentary and photo essay accompanying Cardnal Zen's interview. As typical for AsiaNews, the story has no byline. Keep in mind, as well, that while AsiaNews does yeoman's work covering news related to the Church in China, it still lacks competent translators; so, I've taken the liberty of cleaning it up a bit, particularly with regard to punctuation. The second picture provided here does not show Chai Ling with her huband, but with a journalist who interviewed her in a...

Twenty years ago, in the spring of 1989, millions of Chinese people peacefully demanded democracy from their Communist government. Centered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the protestors were protected by the populace who set up barriers to keep them free from government intervention. But on the morning of June 4th, the Communist regime ordered tanks and soldiers to quell the protest. The violence and bloodshed that was the result has two opposing witnesses. The Chinese government insisted that 241 people died, whereas the Chinese Red Cross stated that over 2,600 had perished. Two decades later the innocent blood that was...

A CHINESE factory worker has been released after serving 17 years in jail for setting fire to a military vehicle during the Tiananmen Square democracy protest.Zhang Maosheng was 21 in 1989 when he was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on charges of counter-revolutionary arson. His sentence was commuted to life in prison and then reduced several times for good behaviour. Contacted at his mother's Beijing home, Mr Zhang, now 38, confirmed he was released on 13 September after 17 years and three months in jail. He declined to speak further, saying that the conditions of his parole forbid...

Two Versions of Googletiananmen - Google Image Search. tiananmen - Google Image Search in China.

Almost nobody knew his name. Nobody outside his immediate neighborhood had read his words or heard him speak. Nobody knows what happened to him even one hour after his moment in the world's living rooms. But the man who stood before a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square June 5, 1989 may have impressed his image on the global memory more vividly, more intimately than even Sun Yat-sen did. Almost certainly he was seen in his moment of self-transcendence by more people than ever laid eyes on Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and James Joyce combined. The meaning of his moment...

President Jacques Chirac was accused yesterday of brushing aside Beijing's human rights record and the legacy of Tiananmen Square as he launched a public relations exercise intended to boost trade links between France and China.In China to launch the "Year of France", Mr Chirac called for an end to the European Union arms embargo, imposed after the 1989 massacre of hundreds of pro-democracy protesters. He was attacked yesterday by human rights activists for "profoundly dishonouring" the massacre victims and their families. France has been leading calls in Europe for a lifting of the arms embargo, which Mr Chirac said on...