Jason Leow reports in the Wall Street Journal:
Nineteen years after Beijing’s bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy movement, China’s college students today are more likely to favor nationalistic causes and work within the one-party system.
The patriotism that drove young people to criticize authorities in the 1980s is now seen by many students as best expressed by supporting China’s leadership for the progress it has achieved in expanding China’s economy and raising its international profile.
That sentiment has been strengthened in recent months by the political crisis in Tibet, the Sichuan earthquake and the approach of the Beijing Olympics.
Students rallied against foreign criticism of Beijing’s policies in Tibet, where violent antigovernment riots in March were met with a harsh crackdown, and they have often lauded the state’s response to the devastating quake. Thousands of Beijing students have volunteered to help with logistics of the Summer Games, which they see as a national triumph.
