ABSTRACT
As the 10th anniversary of mass demonstrations in Tiananmen Square approaches, reminders of the brutal suppression that followed weeks of peaceful protest in Beijing only intermittently shape news stories about China. A recent series in The New York Times examined the impact of environmental regulations, the spread of urban poverty, the persistence of women's inequality, and the moderation of family planning policy without allusion to the events in Tiananmen. Even though China-based correspondents no longer refer to a "Tiananmen Square massacre", an installment of "Twentieth Century" aired in October 1998 reinforced that image for television audiences. Host Mike Wallace announced that his program would show how events in China during mid-May 1989 "led to the massacre in Tiananmen Square". The American goal of changing China through benevolent intervention began more than a century ago when missionaries journeyed across the Pacific to lift a benighted people out of darkness and "save China for Christ".
