The Tiananmen Square crackdown merits merely a line in Chinese history textbooks, and it only informs children of student demonstrations. They never learn that the movement was crushed by the military.

Many young Chinese have no idea what happened that night. Others have picked up titbits from the internet and pieced together some of the story. Most display little interest in an event that took place when they were barely out of kindergarten. One young woman at a Beijing university said: “I remember the tanks in the streets and the noise but I always thought it was firecrackers. I didn’t know anyone was killed, but know it’s something I shouldn’t talk about.”

Many students today regard their counterparts of 20 years ago as misguided and naive. These days their priorities are commercial success or career progress. Few have an interest in politics. Older residents of Beijing lived through those seven exhilarating weeks and remember all too clearly how it ended. Residents often respond with passion to 6/4 — as the crackdown is known.

“It’s like an open sore. Everyone knows that terrible things happened. One day there will have to be a reckoning,” one said.

Times Archive, 1989: Bravery, hatred and ongoing carnage

At noon yesterday, when tanks started moving along the Changan Avenue, I watched as a man in a white shirt ran from a crowd

• China's dark nights

• Message from the square

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Many prefer to look to the prosperity nurtured by the Communist Party in the following two decades. Liberal intellectuals may debate the need for the Government to reverse its verdict on the “counter-revolutionary” uprising. But they know that their discussions are academic.

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