Ten years later there are still unanswered questions and the quest for the revelation of the truth.

Ten years later, the after-effects of the Tiananmen Square protests and crackdown are still being felt. There is still a ban on discussion of the subject itself. More security guards are patrolling the campuses, while school authorities monitor popular Internet chat sites for any hint of anti-government sentiments.

Yet behind the wall of government imposed silence, people still privately discuss the legacy of the crackdown. A graduate student at Peking University's prestigious Guanghua School of Mangement says that the killings still cast a dark shadow over the Chinese people. "Ten years on, even though the economy has developed significantly, many problems remain unsolved," he says. "Graft and corruption are more entrenched than ever. But people are afraid to stand up; they're afraid to express their anger. They fear government reprisals and the sacrifices they have to make."

Many people who were students in 1989 have made lives for themselves, but the Tiananmen legacy remains. Xue Yongtao was a student at Peking University in 1989. She used to go see the posters around the triangle, whose slogans demanded democracy. She says, "We were all very excited that maybe something important would happen," she recalls. "We were just naive kids." Ten years later the posters around the triangle are quite different. Xue, today at 32, says, "Students are much more practical than we were in 1989. They will not mess around in politics. But having said that: I am glad I was there in 1989. It formed me as a person and I'll never forgive the government. They sent tanks against us."

There are of course, opinions that sway in the other direction. A Communist Youth League leader declares that some things are more important than the ideals spouted by youthful protestors a decade ago. "Without stability and social order, everything else is just talk," he asserts.

Perhaps the reasoning behind the new way of thinking is that the Chinese have more to lose now than in 1989, due to the great strides in economic progress. Also, people became more realistic. They became more apolitical, concerned mostly about their next meal. Now it seems that most Chinese people just want to live a quiet life.

'The fact is, people in Beijing are no longer hung up on Tiananmen. Beneath the surface, it is easy to tap into the latent sense of outrage toward a government that could do such a thing and then refuse to apologize for it. And there are many in China still fighting the battle, struggling to bring about true democracy and a respect for individuals' rights. But most of China's citizens are contentedly focusing their energies on more pragmatic endeavors, like making money, learning English, studying computers, raising a family.' (Time Magazine: Memories That Won't Fade Away, June 7, 1989)

It's obvious that even after ten years, old wounds run deep. While on the surface, it seems the citizens of China are well adjusted and over the events of the crackdown in Tiananmen Square, it still isn't forgotten. There are still people out there who want the Chinese government to admit what they did was wrong. It's possible that someday they might get their wish. On Zhu Rongji's recent trip to America, he was quoted as saying, "the episode happened because they wanted democracy but they didn't want the rule of law." That's the first time the incident in Tiananmen Square was referred to as a movement for democracy, instead of a counterrevolutionary movement.

But even though there are economic reforms in China and some people have put Tiananmen Square behind them,ten years later, is obviously not long enough for everyone to forgive or forget.

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