The Chinese government’s crackdown on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square will not go away “in the torrent of History”said new Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Tuesday for the 35th anniversary of the event. “The memories of June 4 will not disappear in the torrent of History and we will continue to work hard to keep this historical memory alive”For “all those who are attached to Chinese democracy”wrote Lai Ching-te, who took office in May, on Facebook. “Because it reminds us that democracy and freedom are not easy to obtain, we must (…) respond to autocracy with freedom and face the rise of authoritarianism with courage”added the leader.
On June 4, 1989, China sent troops and tanks against peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s central square to end weeks of protests calling for political change. Hundreds of people, even more than a thousand by some estimates, were killed. The subject is particularly sensitive for China’s communist leaders and any mention of the repression is strictly censored in the country. Many young Chinese today are unaware of this part of Chinese history because of this censorship.
In Taipei, the Taiwanese capital, an annual vigil is planned for Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. (10:40 GMT) at the Chiang Kai-shek memorial. China believes that Taiwan is one of its provinces, which it has not yet succeeded in reunifying with its territory since the end of the civil war and the coming to power of the communists in Beijing in 1949. Beijing has accused President Lai Ching-te to push the island towards “the war”accusing him of being a “dangerous separatist”.
