Hundreds of people gathered in Taiwan on Tuesday evening to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Chinese government’s crackdown on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and “keep that memory alive.”
“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 on Facebook Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who took office in May.
“Because it reminds us that democracy and freedom are not easy to achieve, we must (…) respond to autocracy with freedom and face the rise of authoritarianism with courage,” he said. added the leader, regularly accused of “dangerous separatist” by Beijing.
On June 4, 1989, China sent troops and tanks against pro-democracy and peaceful demonstrators in Beijing’s main 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.
– “The people’s voice” –
In the crowd gathered in Taiwan, Vincent Lee, 46, explained that it was his “way of protecting democracy and freedom in Taiwan against the Chinese dictatorship”. “China is becoming more and more authoritarian and Xi Jinping (the Chinese president, editor’s note) looks like an emperor,” he judged.
China considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces, which it has not yet managed to reunify with its territory since the end of the civil war and the coming to power of the communists in Beijing in 1949.
She accused President Lai Ching-te of pushing the island towards “war” and organized large-scale military maneuvers around Taiwan in May.
Mr. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party defends the sovereignty of Taiwan, which has its own government, army and currency. “A truly respectable country is one where people speak out,” Mr. Lai wrote in his post on Tuesday.
“Any regime must confront the voice of the people, especially the younger generation, because social change often depends on diverse opinions,” he added.
In 1989, Beijing claimed to have put an end to “counter-revolutionary riots” in what outside the country was seen as a massacre of innocents, including many students.
Asked about the 35th anniversary on Monday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Beijing “will continue to oppose the use (of these events) to attack and smear China.”
The European Union called on the Chinese authorities to “act so that those responsible are judged”.
– Tourists in photos –
In Tiananmen Square, groups of tourists wearing matching neon headwear were seen Tuesday morning posing next to the mausoleum of Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung. The security presence was significant but not unusual.
Access to the largest square in the world, which is lined with numerous official buildings as well as the Forbidden City, is strictly controlled at all times and requires authorization.
In Hong Kong, a former British colony returned to China in 1997, an eighth person was arrested on Monday, in connection with a new national security law, for messages posted on networks concerning the anniversary of the repression.
Hong Kong was for a long time the only place in China where the commemoration of the massacre of June 4, 1989 was tolerated. The handover agreement guaranteed in principle an extended regime of freedoms in the former colony until 2047.
But these commemorations, often in the form of candlelight vigils in tribute to the many protesters killed, were banned from 2020.
AFP journalists on Tuesday saw dozens of police officers patrolling Victoria Park, where tens of thousands of people previously gathered to mourn the dead. Police searches around Victoria Park intensified after dark.
Sitting on a bench to read the play “May 35”, a coded reference to June 4, Tsang, a theater employee, said she had come “for those who cannot speak for themselves” and “to show that people remember Again”.
The day before, Hong Kong artist Sanmu Chen was briefly arrested after drawing the Chinese characters for “8964”, the anniversary date, in the air.
The Mothers of Tiananmen, a group of relatives of victims of the 1989 repression, affirmed that they “persist in their three demands for truth, compensation and (recognition of) responsibilities”, in a statement Tuesday . “We will never allow your lives to be sacrificed in vain. The historic tragedy must not be repeated.”
