A far cry from Tiananmen Square

BEIJING, MAY 30: Ten years after Beijing students stood at the vanguard of mass pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square, political apa...

BEIJING, MAY 30: Ten years after Beijing students stood at the vanguard of mass pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square, political apathy has descended on campuses as students set their sights on less lofty ideals. 8220;Everything in China has changed since 1989. Students now are just concerned about themselves 8212; finding a job, making money, having a pretty girlfriend, and why shouldn8217;t we be?8221; a Beijing University student told AFP.

8220;We don8217;t have much of an opinion about what happened at Tiananmen, we have our own problems to worry about and no inclination to think about these political issues,8221; he added. 8220;Students just don8217;t care about 1989 any more,8221; another student said.

Times are changing at the prestigious Beijing University, commonly known as Beida8217; and historically a hotbed of political movements, where in 1989 the first 8220;big character8221; posters appeared calling for greater freedoms.

Thousands of Beida students later participated in the six weeks of pro-democracy protests that year. Anunknown number were among the hundreds killed when the movement was brutally crushed on June 4. Economic reforms launched by late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in early 1992 threw China full throttle into unabashed capitalism, but political reform, democracy and the events of 1989 remain taboo subjects.

8220;The economy is booming and even the human rights situation has improved, so why would we risk getting involved in sensitive political issues?8221; a 26-year-old student at another Beijing university asked, while adding that he was 8220;too scared8221; to give his real name.

According to Columbia University sinologist Andrew Nathan, present-day student apathy is a direct result of the 1989 crackdown. 8220;It8217;s a response to the regime8217;s message that political activism is not permitted and the cost of disobeying is high,8221; he told AFP from New York, adding only a handful of students 8220;driven by principle8221; had persisted in testing the regime.

8220;Others who are more realistic8217; or practical-minded have taken themessage to heart and looked around for other outlets for their energy,8221; he said.When the Communist Party declared the 1989 movement a counter-revolutionary rebellion8217;, Beida was largely blamed for incubating the ideological agitation.8217;

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Authorities only recently lifted a special policy requiring undergraduates at Beida to undergo an extra year at school for military training, or patriotic indoctrination. When a list of 21 most-wanted students was published after the crackdown, a third were from Beida. Topping the list was Wang Dan, who was finally exiled to the United States last year after two convictions for subversion.

8220;Wang Dan has completely wasted his time in prison. Today8217;s students are more practical and rational. They think about money or about leaving the country,8221; a 19-year-old Beida student told AFP.

Wang, speaking in Vancouver , said the students were not to blame for their apathy as they did not learn from textbooks about the massacre. 8220;Those students in the past 10 years have beenunder extreme and powerful influence. So it is understandable they don8217;t know what happened on June 4, 1989,8221; he said. 8220;During the 1980s, the focus was on reform, but during the nineties, students are more interested in personal pursuits,8221; he said.

8220;It is part of the global trend of liberalism where you protect your own.8221; However, Wang said he is still confident China will reform itself and said a grassroots democracy system is very much alive. 8220;I remember a few years back where students at Beijing University were arrested because they distribute propaganda. So it shows there are still young students who remember,8221; he said.