BEIJING — Two decades later, the government was there. Hundreds of police, uniformed and plainclothes, watching the tourists take refuge from the Beijing sun under a sea of multi-colored parasols. Mao Zedong was there, too, staring out at the square from his framed perch above the gate. But there would be no repeat of the showdown, no Tiananmen Redux. The students had failed to show.
A 30-minute drive to the north, in a restaurant outside the west gate of Peking University, one of the no-shows, 25-year-old graduate student Rui Luo, tucked into a lunch of stewed chicken and kale, having just returned from sending his girlfriend off on a business trip. He was oblivious to the date.
Read Full Article »