MacGyver Versus The People’s Republic of China

With an episode that’s very critical of the infamous Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 4, 1989, does MacGyver has a big beef with the People’s Republic of China?


By: Ringo Bones


As he does his good deeds across the world during the Reagan and Bush senior administrations, MacGyver was never shy about expressing his critique on the despotic side of Marxist-Leninist socialism. When 1989 came and the Soviet Empire is already on the wan, every citizen under the yoke of communist hegemony started clamouring for a change – as in more human rights. And believe it or not, the movement got its first start in the People’s Republic of China were young people rallied for more democratic changes as early as April 1989.

Unfortunately, the idealism of those young Mainland Chinese was brutally crushed in the morning of June 4, 1989 when that notorious Tiananmen Square Massacre got underway. Although the Eastern European reforms got on relatively bloodlessly during the rest of 1989 – the infamous Tiananmen Square Massacre seems to have trapped the People’s Republic of China in a repressive time-warp that still goes on till this day. Eventually the civilized world’s criticism over the Tiananmen Square Massacre got the attention of the libertine climes of Hollywood that even the makers of MacGyver felt the need to do their part to express their disdain.

The MacGyver episode titled “Children of Light” that originally aired back in November 6, 1989 became a platform for MacGyver’s critique of Beijing government’s brutality over its citizens that took place in June 4th of that year. That particular MacGyver episode was about a Chinese student with a video taped footage of the Tiananmen Square Massacre where regular Mainland Chinese troops were ordered to indiscriminately fire at young Mainland Chinese protesters. The Chinese student asked MacGyver for help to expose the atrocities of the Beijing government’s brutal crackdown of the student movement to the rest of the world. Even the Bush senior administration was paralyzed on how to react on the Tiananmen Square Massacre due to the US growing lucrative business relations with the People’s Republic of China back in 1989.

As soon as that particular MacGyver episode aired around the world, the Mainland Chinese consulate in Canada immediately launched a diplomatic protest when a nondescript building in Vancouver was used as the episode’s Mainland Chinese consulate building. Even until this day, TV networks based in South-East Asia with lucrative business relations with Beijing still refuse to air this particular MacGyver episode because of its deemed politically sensitive content on the brutal crackdown of the student protests in Tiananmen Square back in June 4, 1989.

Given the educational value of every MacGyver episode, South-East Asian TV networks broadcasting syndicated reruns of MacGyver choosing not to air the “Children of Light” episode are doing South-East Asian fans of MacGyver a disservice. Given Angus MacGyver’s Cold-War era upbringing of having a critical view of the heavy-handed authoritarian manifestation of Marxist-Leninist socialism, a MacGyver episode having a sociological critique of such form of communism is inevitable. Maybe MacGyver has a valid point of reforming Marxist-Leninist socialism in order for it to last into the 21st Century, don’t you agree?