Today marks the 19th anniversary of events at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where peaceful student protests ended in a violent military crackdown on the night of June 3 and early on the morning of June 4, 1989. Reports on how many protesters were killed is still uncertain, with different sources reporting anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand.

Nineteen years later, and after one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent Chinese history, it is interesting to see how much has changed in China, and how much still remains the same. Chinese media have become arguably more open with their reporting, but there are still strict controls placed on journalists, even in advance of about 20,000 foreign reporters descending upon Beijing in August.

We still do not know exactly what happened that night, or have an accurate tally of how many people were killed, and the Chinese government is still extremely sensitive about large gatherings anywhere near the square. Many young Chinese grow up with unclear notions, or no idea at all about what happened in 1989. That year is widely considered a turning point in their nation’s history, especially in its foreign relations. All of this is testament to the fact that, even after nearly two decades, China still has a long way to go.

Ma Jian has an op-ed in the NYT this morning about Tiananmen in light of the Sichuan earthquake.

Photo: Arguably the most famous image of the Tiananmen Square protests, photographed for the AP in 1989 by Jeff Widener, who is now a photographer at the Advertiser.

Sharon Stone’s films are being been banned in China, following remarks the American actress made at the Cannes film festival last week suggesting the Chinese earthquake was “karma” for what happened in Tibet earlier this year. Hong Kong’s Cable Entertainment News interviewed the actress on the red carpet, and got a mouthful from Stone:

First, I’m not happy with the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans, because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else, and so I have been very, concerned, about how to think about what to do about that, because I don’t, like, that. And then I’ve been, just, concerned, oh, how should we deal with the Olympics, because they’re not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who’s a good friend of mine. And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, ‘Is that karma?’, when you’re not nice the bad things happen to you?

Stone’s comments are all over the internet. According to the Chinese media-watching site Danwei, the Chinese Information Times printed a full-page special on her comments under the headlines “Sharon Stone is an enemy of the whole nation” and “The Chinese people spontaneously start an anti-Sharon movement.” As most Chinese media are still focusing on the 68,000 people killed in the earthquake, the Stone story received more moderate coverage in other papers, Danwei said.

Watch the video of the interview here:

She is not the first person, however, to link the May 12 earthquake to theories about the supernatural and the much-referenced Mandate of Heaven. As mentioned before in this blog, natural disasters have an eerie way of coinciding with major political events in China. Except, others who mention the Mandate of Heaven aren’t necessarily referencing the Chinese government’s policies towards Tibet, but rather how the Communist Party will answer questions about shoddily constructed public structures — like schools that collapsed on young children.

Being college-educated, and from her involvement with the Free Tibet movement — and being an American living under the current political conditions in this country — Stone should be able to separate the actions of a government from the wills and actions of its people. It was an ugly remark and she should have known better.

It’s difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the tragedies in Myanmar and China this week. Both countries have suffered tremendous losses of life, and we will see more lives lost if help is not swiftly and effectively provided.

The two countries’ authoritarian governments reacted to relief efforts differently. With now more than 100,000 people estimated missing or dead in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis, the country’s secretive military government has been slow to accept the international aid that survivors now desperately need.

In China, the death toll from Monday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province rose past 15,000 on Wednesday, with thousands more trapped or missing. That number will almost certainly increase in the days ahead.

The Chinese Communist Party has not embraced foreign aid workers with open arms, but unlike Myanmar, China has the capacity to send 50,000 soldiers to the devastated region to help with relief efforts. Official reports of the damage in Myanmar came slowly and were confusing, but Chinese media have been reporting on the death toll and the damage with increased openness.

Natural disasters and political events can be eerily linked in China. When media call this week’s quake “China’s deadliest earthquake in three decades,” they are referring to the 1976 Tangshan earthquake that killed more than 240,000 people in the northeast region of the country. That was one of the most turbulent years in modern Chinese history — Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai both died in 1976, and that the was the year the Cultural Revolution ended.

It seems 2008 may be stacking up to be another one of those years for China — the earthquake follows a spate of intense snowstorms in January and an Olympic torch relay mired in controversy as the country prepares for the Games in August.

China received plenty of criticism (deserved or not) regarding the Tibet protests in March, but after this week’s events, we’ll almost certainly see a change in China coverage. Now hardly seems the time to assess the political fallout from the disaster. Even so, you can be sure the world will be watching to see how China responds with less than 3 months to go before the opening ceremonies.

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Related:

Peter Hessler in The New Yorker, After the Earthquake (Hessler’s former students from his books River Town and Oracle Bones report on the disaster that struck close to home.)
Gady A. Epstein in Forbes Magazine, China’s Mandate of Heaven
Daniel Goldbloom in the National Post, Cyclone Nargis, The Sichuan Earthquake and Authoritarian Disaster Relief: Burma vs. China
Danwei’s coverage of China and Myanmar, Danwei.org
American Red Cross, ways to help survivors of the China Earthquake and Myanmar Cyclone

photo: Rescuers search for survivors in a collapsed road in Beichuan County, Sichuan province. AP / Cong Feng, Xinhua