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NTD Sweden shows here a special program from China Infocus on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of the massacre at the Heaven's Peace Square when Chinese students paid with their lives as well as on the occasion of the negotiations between Washington and Beijing for a new trade agreement. Is the Chinese communist regime ready to make real changes or is history doomed to repeat itself? We hear experts who analyze the history and the regime's policy to this day and Chinese youths and activists who share their thoughts on the tragic days of 1989. Can China change through a trade deal? That's the gamble on the table right now as the US government negotiates with Beijing and world markets are watching closely. Talks of China rebalancing, reforming or even opening up its economy once again making headlines. We opened up China. China agreed to open itself up to American business to go in. These demands echo the calls made by Chinese students in 1989. They held mass protests calling for further reform and opening up in China but their hopes were crushed, their lives lost under the Chinese Communist Party's brutal clampdown. So now the question is, is the Chinese regime ready to change this time? As the army units approached the center of the city, they were firing into side streets killing and injuring scores of incomprehending and unarmed men, women and children. The troops have been firing indiscriminately but still there are thousands of people on the streets who will not move back. The bicycle rickshaw scooped up the injured. Others were shunted onto bikes and peddled to hospital. The battle is underway but it's being fought in the broad boulevards beyond Tiananmen Square where civilians are confronting the troops advancing on this position and falling under heavy gunfire from the people's army. Casualties were arriving every few seconds on bikes, rickshaws, park benches carried in. In 20 minutes, 40 seriously injured were brought for emergency surgery. Two were already dead. The students were incredibly brave. They were fighting live ammunition with rocks and stones. The crackdown is going to take many more hours if not days before it is complete before we will know how many people have died. How do you feel right now? Feel right now? I'm very angry. That was Western Media reporting on the Tiananmen Square Massacre where countless perished on the night of June 3rd and into June 4th in 1989. Before we get to that, let's turn back the clock to understand why the Chinese students demonstrated and what the Chinese regime did to suppress this democratic movement. We begin with April 15th. That's the date of former CCP head Hu Yaobang died. Now he was very well loved. He was known as a pro-reform leader. That's both economic and also some political reform. And because he was so well loved on April 17th to 18th, you had tens of thousands of students who showed up organically in Tiananmen Square. That's at the heart of Beijing's capital. And they were there to mourn and pay respects for Hu's passing but also to show their dissatisfaction against the regime because Hu represented to them anti-corruption and also political reform. So it begins to spread into almost a protest. And it grows. You have 35 universities in Beijing where students are protesting and also other major universities across the country where people are joining in. So this movement is growing. By this point, you have countless people across the country joining in. So on April 26th, you have an op-ed that's published in the People's Daily. That's a state-run newspaper. And it's calling the student movement as a form of political turmoil. Now that's important because during the Cultural Revolution, anyone deemed a threat to public security was said to need to be purged. And so that's when you're starting to see pressure on this student movement, this democratic movement that's happening inside China. Now in response, you had 200,000 students come out and protest this editorial and the regime's narrative of what's happening. So as April becomes May, you have millions of people joining in. It's no longer just students. You have CCP officials themselves joining in, justice judges and also some soldiers that are joining in. So at this point, on May 13th, you have students in Tiananmen who are now doing a hunger strike to try and get the regime to talk to them and open up some dialogue. And you have some people supporting them where they're like, oh, we really support this movement. We're going to give them food and water to help them out. So this is putting a lot of social pressure on the regime. So on May 18th, you have then leader Li Peng meeting with the student leaders, but they're dissatisfied with what the regime is doing. So they refuse to leave. So on May 19th is when you had then CCP head Zhao Ziyang meeting because he was sympathetic with them. where troops are ordered into Beijing. Now, following Zhao's purge, he gets purged from the party, you had then Deng Xiaoping, who was the head of the Chinese military. He becomes the most powerful person within the Chinese Communist Party. So he's now effectively calling the shots. Because he controls the military, he now orders the military, the tanks and the soldiers, to open fire on the night of June 3rd. So this is to fire on any students and also protesters who are on their way. And that marks the beginning of the massacre. Many were killed this night. It continues. The massacre continues through June 4th, where many more are killed. Even some Beijing residents who are inside their homes, they get hit or killed by stray bullets. Now the true death toll to this day is still unknown. Some are saying it's in the hundreds. Some say even up to 10,000. We still don't know that true number. Now as the massacre continues, on June 5th, the regime calls for a nationwide campaign to arrest the student leaders or demonstrators. And some of them were actually sentenced to the death penalty, all for calling for democracy. Others are still in jail to this very day, 36 years later. So that's what was launched on June 5th. These Chinese students fought for democracy and freedom. They believed that the Chinese regime would listen to them and bring about changes. But they were met with tanks and gunfire. 36 years later, half their demands shifted over time. Feng Zhen is a Chinese activist and lifelong athlete. On June 4th, 1989, Feng was among the students cruelly overrun by army tanks during the Tiananmen Square protests. After he pushed a young female student to safety, a tank crushed both his legs, leading to a double amputation. Feng currently serves as the president of the Chinese Democracy Education Foundation. Looking back, 36 years have passed. Most of those demands haven't really changed much, looking at the current situation in China. If a large-scale student movement were to happen again today, I believe the demands wouldn't be very different from what we had back then. This shows that the Chinese Communist Party's dictatorial and authoritarian model of rule hasn't changed in 36 years. So our basic demands for freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law are still what people in China long for today. Within six months of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, President George H.W. Bush secretly sent envoys to China twice to keep the door open with Beijing. He believed this approach would serve long-term US economic interests. What he might not have realized, it also helped China get through the crisis without real consequences. Fast forward a few decades, China capitalized on globalization, joining the World Trade Organization, becoming the world's factory, and booming into the world's second-largest economy. Western countries got more and more dependent on China for everything, from supply chains to consumer markets. That dependency turned into a big security concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, when China stockpiled crucial medical gear, like masks and ventilators, for itself. After that, many Western countries started trying to de-risk, meaning they wanted to rely less on China. Now, with President Trump back in the White House, he's hitting China with steep tariffs to counter unfair trade and pressure China to open up its markets. Right now, there's a temporary trade truce between the US and China. But can they hammer out a lasting deal in the next 90 days? That remains an open question. I think Western politicians are, of course, driven by their own interests. They tend to apply their own logic to interpret the CCP regime and its system. But that logic doesn't really work. Because China under the CCP isn't a normal society in the way the West defines it. It's not a standard society anymore after so many years of authoritarian rule. China's strategy toward the West is also deceptive. Hype my strength, bite my time. In order to secure deals, it simply lies. Whether those agreements will be honored later is another matter. The Communist Party has always operated this way without any ethical boundaries, nor does it feel any moral pressure. They don't care about keeping promises. And so what if they don't keep them? Nothing happens. So if the West continues to engage with the CCP using Western logic, it will always be at a disadvantage. It will lose. Just now, Feng noted the regime's strategy called Hide and Abide, deceiving the West to achieve its own goals, adding that if the US continues to engage the CCP using Western logic, it will lose. Here to help us understand American policy towards China over the years is longtime China expert the Honorable Stephen Yates. He served as Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney. He witnessed firsthand the shift from engaging with China in the hopes of liberalizing the country to what that engagement policy has cost America. Steve, thank you so much for joining us. Now we're hearing calls from this administration for China to reform, rebalance its economy, even open up its economy. If past is prologue, and given the events that went down on June 4th, 1989, how likely is China to change this time around? Roughly from 1989 to 1991, when you look at China and Russia as bookends, the Soviet Union dissolving, and there was this notion that somehow the West, free markets, the culture and civilization had somewhat, quote unquote, won, and that China, like many others, was going to seek to emulate in some way, shape or form, adapt to at least accommodate the dominance of Western civilization. And what we have learned for the better part of 40 years is that changes within China, when it comes to political system, have been very, very minor. And even on the economic system, they haven't really adapted to our way of thinking or operating. They have taken advantage of those things. And Steve, as Feng noted above, the Chinese Communist Party doesn't operate as a normal society. It's not the way the West understands. Has the U.S. learned that lesson? Are we seeing that play out in the way this administration is dealing with China, as in holding it accountable? Well, I think it's adjusting in the following way. For a lot of my life, we engaged with an idea that basically people all over the world are innately the same. And, you know, they might be prisoners of a bad system. But if you find a way to reform or open that system, then those same people, just like us and our friends and neighbors abroad, they would just seek a better life for their family, the better opportunity for their children, more stability and opportunity generally for their society. All those things were deemed as universal goals and aspirations. But what we're learning is that our influence from the outside might be more marginal than we anticipated. And so I think what the Trump administration is adapting to is really looking at how do we set the international system in a way that aligns what we need to do bilaterally with China, that contains malign influences and leaves it to the Chinese people and those that lead them to sort out what their internals are. That might be a brutal direction to adjust. And it's sad on a human level in a certain sense. But we have to be honest that over the last generation, we have not moved the needle on some structural human rights issues the way that had been promised and the way that our national interests and values should dictate. Steve Yates, thank you so much for those insights. Thank you. Next, let's hear from today's youth on China's so-called opening up and about their attitudes towards the Chinese regime. NTD's Flora Hua brings us details. What do you think China as a market? Do you think China should open up more? Yeah, I have done business in China before. And like, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you hope that, you know, the workers producing the products that you might be buying are paid a decent wage and have decent conditions and that their environmental controls that are helpful for global commons and our air and water. And yeah, you don't always get the sense that that's that's happening in China. The Chinese Communist Party has long profited off the U.S. trade surplus. And I think this time the U.S. should take a much tougher stance toward China to transfer internal pressure and unrest. I believe the CCP will likely try to appear more conciliatory to the U.S. government, because if exports really come to a halt and Chinese people start losing jobs, they may rise up to protest. And that's something the CCP doesn't want to see. Just now, we heard from today's youth about opinions on the Chinese regime. Joining us now to dig deeper is Joshua Phillip, senior investigative reporter with The Epoch Times, who's covered Chinese Communist Party subversion for years. Josh, thank you so much for joining us to share insight. Now, to begin, what ultimately is the fundamental difference when it comes to Western governments and something like the Chinese Communist Party? What do U.S. officials need to know to understand how to approach the CCP? You know, there's this whole slogan in China, there'd be no new China without the CCP. Absolutely not true. Most of the Asian world, I mean, look at South Korea, came up without needing communism. I would actually say it's the opposite. There would be no new China without the USA. Because all the wealth of China, the entire economic boom, it came mainly through U.S. investment. The CCP does not really respect free markets. The Chinese Communist Party engages in some of the most abusive trade policies of anywhere in the world. In fact, Trump even acknowledged this, saying that they're the worst abuser they've identified. That's why he had 145% tariffs on it. And so, you know, the whole idea that by engaging with the Chinese Communist Party, that somehow it's going to magically change. We've been trying that for decades, and it has not worked. What we've actually found is the opposite. If you open up a channel for the CCP, they will not change, but they will try to change you. So should the U.S. just not deal with it? Or how should U.S. officials approach this? I wonder sometimes if we've lost our minds thinking the CCP is going to change when, again, experience has shown, repeatedly, no, it does not. Even internally, the CCP regards us as its number one enemy. Its own doctrine says they cannot coexist in the same world as the United States. Every action they take diplomatically and globally is to undermine the United States. They say this behind closed doors. They say it in the open. They say it in their military doctrine. And somehow we still think they don't really mean what they say. But then actions, I'd say, speak louder than words. And every one of those also is to undermine the United States. Why do we open the door for this? We know they're doing it. All right, Josh, as always, thank you so much for your insights. A pleasure. Thank you. Coming up, a young Chinese billionaire almost lost it all over a tent-shaped ice cream. Why did this simple dessert trigger such fear in the Chinese regime? Stay with us to find out. Welcome back. Now, the story of a young Chinese celebrity that almost lost it all after accidentally getting a little too close to the Chinese regime's red line. This young man's name is Li Jiaqi. He's a Chinese social media personality known for his watch and shop livestream. To get a sense of scale for his success, he once sold more than $600 million worth of products via livestream in a single day. But two years ago, his career went from a raging success to a nightmare, all because he promoted an ice cream dessert that looks like a miniature tank. The problematic ice cream bar appeared on his livestream one day before the anniversary of the June 4th Tiananmen Massacre. The date is considered a deeply sensitive red line by the Chinese regime. After showcasing the tank-shaped ice cream treat, Li Jiaqi stopped livestreaming for more than three months. Speculation roared at the time, with social media posts questioning whether Li's livestreams were cut off by Chinese internet regulators. Around the same time, Chinese authorities also issued regulations for livestreamers, warning them to not touch on topics considered sensitive by the Chinese regime, and saying that violators would face consequences like having their accounts banned or even criminal punishment. The sensitive topic Li may have ventured too close to, the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. Many Westerners learned of the tragedy through this image, known as the Tank Man. For decades, information about it has been censored across China. Keywords like June 4th, Tank Man and the Tiananmen Massacre are scrubbed from the Chinese web. Because of it, much of China's younger generations, like Li Jiaqi and his fans, are completely unaware of the Chinese regime's massacre. And some of those young people say they'd rather remain unaware. And to be honest, if I wasn't studying abroad and I'm just living in China, not knowing them wouldn't bother me. And now even I know them and I realize that I couldn't have learned about these back in China, it still doesn't really bother me. For decades, the Chinese Communist Party has enforced strict information censorship and brainwashing education on the Chinese people. But in a surprising turn, the apparent shutdown of his live streams over a mere dessert sparked curiosity among many young Chinese. They began asking questions. Why are tanks banned? What really happened on June 4th, 1989? A tank-shaped ice cream rattled China's communist leadership. So much so, the regime poured hundreds of millions of dollars into censoring the internet, trying hard to block public access to free information. But here's the question. Why would a regime that relies on economic growth to hold power pour so much into controlling online information? The CCP hides and distorts its own history to cover up its crimes. Everyone knows only criminals fear exposure. So the regime uses the state mechanisms to impose a high-pressure policy of collective amnesia on the younger generation. As a result, society in general has almost no awareness of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The topic of June 4th is essentially non-existent. It's a sensitive word censored on the internet. And now we have NTD's Flora Hua with us. She's been talking with young Chinese people over the past couple of days. Flora, what was your main takeaway? Yes, Tip. I felt hope that many young Chinese people are still fighting for democracy and freedom until today. And there's one story I want to share with you. Where a smart young man told me that this is his duty. That's the exact same thing a student in Beijing said 36 years ago before going to protest. That sounds very inspiring. Let's go and listen to that now. The Chinese Communist Party, as you know, as what you just described, is tightening its control over its own people and surprising its own people. And then, well, in the meanwhile, on the international stage, China said, we welcome Western countries to do trade with China and welcome foreign investment, foreign companies to come in China to do business. So how do you see this phenomenon? Like what I experienced in China, the Chinese Communist Party always regards the United States as an evil state and as a rival. And right now, I think the people of the United States should wake up to see what lies the CCP has made to the world. Because the CCP has just promised the world that they will change the human rights condition and to make the world accept the CCP to trade with the Western world. But the CCP has never changed its human rights suppression to its own people. And the trade with the West world is just a tool of the CCP to seize power. So making money to just infiltrate, like what I said, to infiltrate the West world and to just subvert the West state, like United States government. So I believe it's 100 percent hypocrisy. How does the younger generation in China view the history they've inherited and their access to an open Internet? We must not forget history. If we do, future generations will have no idea what this evil regime has done. The contrast between not knowing and later learning the truth was shocking for me. That's why now that I'm in a land of freedom, I feel the need to support those fighting for democracy. 36 years later, the events of that fateful day, June 4, 1989, are still impacting us to this day. As the U.S. once again figures out next steps with China. Thank you for joining us for this special edition of China in Focus on NTD. I'm Tiffany Meyer.