35 years ago, Chinese soldiers killed hundreds of demonstrators in Beijing. The event is being hushed up in the People’s Republic of China. In Taiwan, President Lai Ching-te recalled the Tiananmen massacre – and criticized China.
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te remembered the victims of the 1989 democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, which were bloodily suppressed, and criticized China’s handling of them. “A truly respectable country is one that allows its citizens to express their opinions,” he wrote on Facebook. Every political power should have the courage to face the voice of the people, he said.
The subject is taboo in the People’s Republic of China. The memory of June 4 will not be lost in the stream of history and we will continue to work hard to preserve the memory, Lai wrote.
Taiwan’s China Affairs Administration (MAC) called on China’s government to have the courage to acknowledge the historical facts of June 4 and adopt a more open attitude toward other opinions.
Taiwan’s President Lai sharply criticized China for its censorship policies.
German Embassy sets an example
On Tuesday night, the German embassy in Beijing showed a video of flickering candles in several windows of its building – a symbol of remembrance of June 4 that has been known for years.
Human rights groups criticized the move. “The Chinese government has not yet taken responsibility for the human rights violations committed during the military operation,” said Jasna Causevic of the Society for Threatened Peoples.
Large police presence in Hong Kong and Beijing
In Beijing, Chinese authorities significantly increased police presence around the site. Checkpoints and patrol cars lined a main road to Tiananmen Square.
Repression also increased in the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong – for a long time Hong Kong was the only place in China where the victims could be commemorated. But for several years now, as Beijing has tightened its crackdown, public memorial events on June 4 have been banned there too.
Security officers patrolled especially around Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, where a registered candlelight vigil took place every year until 2019. The park’s sports fields, where tens of thousands of people often gathered in previous years to commemorate the anniversary, were used for a festival.
Hundreds of Hong Kong police officers are on the lookout for activities commemorating the Tiananmen massacre, the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported. The presence in sensitive locations was increased on the eve of the anniversary. The police will also monitor social media. In recent days, there have been several arrests in connection with the commemoration day.
In 1989, thousands of people gathered in Beijing at the Tiananmen Square. They demonstrated peacefully for more democracy and against the government.
Soldiers killed hundreds of civilians
35 years ago, the People’s Liberation Army crushed weeks of peaceful protests against the government and for more democracy in Beijing. For weeks, thousands of demonstrators peacefully occupied the huge square at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in the center of the Chinese capital. After several failed attempts to mediate between the state and party leadership and the demonstrators, the communist government declared martial law in Beijing.
On the night of June 3-4, 1989, troops with tanks advanced toward Tiananmen Square and attacked the citizens. In the streets surrounding the square, hundreds of civilians, some estimates say thousands, were killed by Chinese soldiers. Many people were arrested and put in prison.
Two days after the massacre on Tiananmen Square: Tanks and destroyed military vehicles stand on an overpass, while bicycle traffic rolls below.
Events are hushed up
But to this day, the massacre has not been dealt with, neither socially nor legally. The events are hushed up. There is nothing about the incidents on the highly censored Chinese Internet. There is also nothing written in school and history books about the democracy protests and the subsequent suppression. Generations of Chinese people have no idea what happened back then.
Nobody in China mentions the issue, says political scientist and author Zhao Sile, who now lives in the USA. Neither her family, teachers, professors, nor the media. The now mid-30-year-old knew nothing about the protests and the massacre until she was 21. “This great, tragic event has been completely erased from people’s vocabulary, history and the Chinese people’s fact-based view of the world. It is unfair and it causes people to lie unintentionally and deny reality.”
With information from Benjamin Eyssel, ARD Studio Beijing