Reflections under the Monument to the People's Heroes

Abstract

It has been more than a month since the start, on April 17, of the students' sweeping patriotic democracy movement. Although the movement has been highly successful up to now and has turned over an important, epochal leaf in the annals of Chinese history, we must admit that many signs that have appeared in the past few days in Tiananmen Square are bewildering and exasperating and, more importantly, disturbing. Seeing the rigid lines of student defense around the monument, seeing the students busy on top of the monument, all democratic-minded people clearly sense the approach of a potential crisis. The foul odors of the decaying existing system, as well as the outmoded ideas and sentiments of the dying order, are invading the cradle of our democratic order in a new form.