Chinese students spent weeks in Tinanmen Square campaigning for democracy in 1989
Photo: ABC news
People across the world marked the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre on June 4 while China kept silent and, while ostensibly treating the day as any other, deploying extra security guards surrounding the Tiananmen Square in Beijing and extra surveillance of activists during the runup to the day.
On June 4, 1989, a student led pro-democracy protest was suppressed with a military crackdown with tanks, killing over 10,000 people and arresting many more; critics and scholars have called the incident “a darkest chapter” in the modern history of China. Beijing has never released an official accounting of the number of people killed.
In Dharamshala – the seat of the exile Tibetan government, or Central Tibetan Administration, and where His Holiness the Dalai Lama is based, a group of Tibetan activists, together with Chinese human rights lawyer and activist Dr Teng Biao, spoke at a forum, China After 30 Years of Tiananmen Massacre, to a packed crowd. “The Chinese government is trying its best to eliminate the memory of the Tiananmen massacre, by brainwashing and keeping the Chinese people in dark, but Chinese people will not stop fighting for democracy” said Dr Teng Biao as quoted by Phayul. The event was organised by Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) and the International Tibet Network (ITN).
Tiananmen Square, June 4, 1989
Photo: The Guardian
The terms “Tiananmen Square”, “June 4” and “1989” have remained taboo in China. The Guardian reports that “June 4”, as the movement is commonly known as in China, remains largely scrubbed from official history and is censored from school text books and online.
Weibo – China’s widely used Twitter-like blogging site – does not show any search result for these keywords in any variation confirms the NBC News report entitled As the world commemorates Tiananmen Square, China is silent.
China’s Defence Minister Wei Fenghe defends the 1989 crackdown in response to questions Tiananmen in a forum, reports the BBC, who quote him as saying, “That incident was a political turbulence and the central government took measures to stop the turbulence, which is a correct policy”. He added that because of the government’s action at that time, “China has enjoyed stability and development”.
Thousands attend candle light vigil in Hong Kong for the victims of Chinese government’s military crackdown on student led pro-democracy protest on June 4, 1989
Photo: RFA
In Hong Kong, which is semiautonomous under Chinese rule, over 180,000 people attended a candle-lit vigil on June 4 at Victory Park. On this day every year, Hong Kongers remind the world about the Tiananmen massacre by holding the largest public vigil.
People who were at the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989, together with other Chinese activists, called for a nationwide 24-hour fast to remember the day.
Ai Weiwei, the Chinese dissident artist, said, writing for the Guardian, “Beijing’s continued whitewashing cannot expunge our collective memory of the killings of 4 June 1989”. He continued, “it was part of a political movement in which every major Chinese city participated” and added, “It remains the most taboo and politically sensitive topic in China, much like the questions of Tibet and Xinjiang for the Chinese Communist party (CCP) and its machine of propaganda and censorship”.
“China has to sincerely repent for the June 4 incident and proactively push for democratic reforms,” said Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, quoted in a Reuters report published on June 3. In response to Taiwan’s statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that great achievements since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China was prove that the path they have chosen is “completely correct”. Taiwan is an independent country claimed by China to be part of its territory.
Canada joins Taiwan in calling for China to break the silence on the Tiananmen Square massacre on the 30th anniversary. “Canada asks Chinese authorities to break the silence on these events by openly accounting for the Chinese citizens who were killed, detained or went missing,” said Foreign Affairs Minister, Chrystia Freeland, in a statement.
In commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompei in is quoted in Business Insider India as saluting the protestors – calling them “heroes” who bravely stood up thirty years ago “in pursuit of a better future for their country”. He called on China to make a full public account of those who were killed or went missing. “China’s one-party state tolerates no dissent and abuses human rights whenever it serves its interests,” said Pompei.
The Chinese Embassy in the United States slammed Pompei’s statement and says that it constitutes intervention in China’s internal affairs. Their statement further stated that China has flourished over the years in every aspect. “China’s human rights are in the best period ever,” said the Embassy.
“Whoever attempts to patronise and bully the Chinese people in any name, or preach a ‘clash of civilisations’ to resist the trend of times will never succeed. They will only end up in the ash heap of history,” concludes the Chinese Embassy’s statement.
In the United States, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing on June 4, Tiananmen at 30: Examining the Evolution of Repression in China; several legislators drew attention to China’s ongoing oppression in Tibet: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentioned “the decades-long abuse faced by the Tibetan people; Sen Marco Rubio called for solidarity with those being persecuted by the Chinese government; Rep Eliot Engel said, “The Chinese Communist Party continues to violate international religious freedom”.
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