As the 24th anniversary of the Tiananmen incident passed on June 4, the Chinese leadership under Mr. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, who became President of the People's Republic of China just in March, remained silent.

There was no official recognition of the important anniversary. Inside China, the government restricted all mention of Tiananmen in publications and blocked Internet sites that carried information about the incident. No public commemorations were allowed and Tiananmen Square was carefully patrolled.

The world would have welcomed a fresh approach to the worst incident in modern Chinese history after the Cultural Revolution from the new leaders in Beijing. Despite declarations against corruption and for a "clear government," the new Chinese rulers, including Premier Li Keqiang, let the anniversary pass with no change in their official view. They let stand the previous verdict, a verdict more political than factual — that the Tiananmen incident was a "counterrevolutionary riot."