By Daniel Nardini

I hope there is an especially warm place for Li Peng in Hell. Li Peng, nicknamed the “Butcher of Beijing,” was one of the architects of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989. He was the premier of China at the time, and remained in the top hierarchy of the Communist Party for the rest of his life. There is no doubt that he will be given a state funeral and buried in the same place as other top ranking Communist Party officials. After all, the Communist Party will look after its own.

And what of Li Peng’s victims, the pro-democracy students and people of Beijing he helped slaughter? There are no graves, no memorials, and no tributes for them. They have become non-persons; official Chinese history in China does not record them as ever having lived. But they did live, they did love their country, and they wanted to change it. It was tyrants like Li Peng who stood in the way, and who sadly triumphed over the people. No matter what the official news in China will say, his true legacy will be that of the Butcher of Beijing. Now that he is gone, it is one less tyrant the world will have to worry about. He has finally been consigned to the dustbin of history.