Tiananmen Square anniversary

Today (June 4) is the anniversary of the government crackdown on the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. There were protests in other parts of the country, but the ones in the capital produced one of the most iconic images in modern history.

 Here's part of theWikipedia article on "Tank Man":

Little is publicly known of the man's identity or that of the commander of the lead tank. Shortly after the incident, British tabloid the Sunday Express named the man as Wang Weilin (王维林), a 19-year-old student; however, the veracity of this claim is dubious. Numerous rumours have sprung up as to the man's identity and current whereabouts, but none are backed by hard evidence.

There are several conflicting stories about what happened to him after the demonstration. In a speech to the President's Club in 1999, Bruce Herschensohn — former deputy special assistant to President of the United States Richard Nixon — reported that he was executed 14 days later; other sources say he was killed by firing squad a few months after the Tiananmen Square protests. In Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, Jan Wong writes that the man is still alive and is hiding in mainland China.

An eyewitness account of the event published in October 2005 by Charlie Cole, a contract photographer for Newsweek magazine at the time, states that the man was arrested on the spot by the Public Security Bureau.[citation needed]

The People's Republic of China government made few statements about the incident or the people involved. In a 1990 interview with Barbara Walters, then-CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin was asked what became of the man. Jiang replied in English "I think never killed." [sic][citation needed]

for example?

Offhand, I can´t think of an instance where government force to stop peaceful protests is good in the long run.  

The movement has passed by, and new generations have no idea about that event. Even the same generation don't have the way to know the fact, beacuse most of them din't take part in the incident. All news is from government or some exiled people, and they have diifferent account about it. Chinese government tried to cover the part of the facts and some people exaggerated the facts.

If the govenment had been the same open on tackling all  events as the present govenment on tackling the earthquake, overseas media wouldn't have so many distorted reports about China. China should learn a lesson from recent events.

I don't think it is meaningful and don't think it is possible to find out the truth of the Tian'anmen Square event. The point is how the government and the so-called democratic pesons could avoid repeating making mistakes and make progress.