Before reading a book on China, a foreigner needs to understand Ch

For me, I believe that Salisbury was a great journalist. He understood the facts as they were presented. However, I have trouble with some of his analysis of the situation in Tiananmen Square. First, there is the fact that he did not know much of the reason behind the protests. "What was going on?" "How had the standoff between the students and the government come about?" , were questions Salisbury was asking while making observations and speculations. Sure, he knew the history of China well; he knew all about the revolutions, rebellions, and people involved, but he did not understand what was going on at that time. It is this lack of comprehension that I find hard to by pass if I was to read the diary and believe it as truth. Even in his conclusion, he is only scratching at the surface of what went on leading up to the Tiananmen Square demonstration and massacre.

China is a very proud country with many natural wonders within its own borders. The Yellow River is one such symbol for the Chinese people. These citizens turn inward in order to cherish this particular river, rather then look outward toward the ocean. The Yellow River, as a great emblem of who China is, is a tremendous rallying symbol around which to look inward. The river is a symbol for the people that they need to rely upon themselves. They must not look to the sea, to the outside for help. Everything that is made or done for China must be accomplished from within China. The people have had to deal with every invasion, attack, and aggression with only their countrymen to help. China has always had to fight off invaders, including the Mongols, Japanese, Europeans, and eventually Americans. One such example is the effort put up by citizens during the Boxer Uprising. It was within this rebellion that a group of citizens took it upon themselves to fight the Europeans and attempted to rid their country of this menace. The rebellion had asked for assistance in the beginning, but none was given. The Chinese people knew that they were on their own. Even though the rebellion failed in the end, it gave the message that only China could help itself.

One idea that he discusses repeatedly over the course of the last half of the book is the possibility of a ripple effect. He comments several times how citizens would speak amongst themselves about the consequences of the trouble in Beijing. "Trouble in Beijing bothered [the peasants]. It had a way of developing into trouble for [the peasants]" . People are worried about what the government will do in their cities.

This was where Harrison E. Salisbury comes in. Salisbury was a world-renowned journalist from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was born on November 14, 1908 and died July 5, 1993. He was newspaper correspondent for most of his life and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1955. He wrote 29 books and spent most of his life traveling the world in search of stories for the Minneapolis Journal, United Press, and The New York Times. Over the last thirty years of his life, he has spent time traveling to, from, and in China. After he retraced the path of the Long March taken by Mao Zedong's army during the years of 1934 and 1935, he wrote a book entitled The Long March, which was listed as the number one book to read by Chinese students in China. He has been referred to as having an "unending desire and uncanny ability to be where the great news of this century was made". Harrison saw a lot and had been to a lot of places. It is this knowledge, experience, and expertise that makes his book a reasonable first source with which to gain an understanding of a foreigners experience at Tiananmen Square at the time of the protests.

In the last fifteen pages of the diary, Salisbury takes some time to put his thoughts in order and to give his account of who is responsible, what he believes happened in Tiananmen Square, why it happened, and what may happen in the future. He believes that it started in 1986

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2975
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)