To Remember is to Resist: #TiananmenSquareMassacre32

"We believe that the truth can be made public by first releasing the names of the dead and then going step by step until the true history of the killing is eventually restored."-  Tiananmen Mothers, June 1, 2021

Tank men face off on June 5, 1989 on Changán Avenue in Beijing, China

Human Rights in China (HRIC) is right when it observes that "to remember is to resist." 32 years have passed and we continue to remember, despite the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party, and their allies to erase this crime against humanity.

We remember the thousands of students and workers murdered by the People's Liberation Army and the more than 800 imprisoned. 

The Pro-Democracy Movement that had taken to the streets in April of 1989 was violently crushed by the Chinese communist dictatorship beginning on the evening of June 3, 1989. By dawn on June 4, 1989 scores of demonstrators had been shot and killed or run over and crushed by tanks of the so-called People's Liberation Army.

Between June 3 and June 5, 1989 other tank drivers ran over protester

On June 5, 1989 in Beijing, following the massive and bloody crackdown after six weeks of protests that began in Tiananmen Square and spread across 400 cities in China, a man risked all to protest what had taken place. Wearing a white t-shirt, black trouses, and carrying what appeared to be a shopping bag he walked out on the north edge of Tiananmen Square, along Chang'an Avenue and faced down a column of Type-59 tanks.

The lead tank tried two drive around him, but the man repeatedly ran in front of the tank to prevent its passing. The tank driver turned off his engine and the rest of the column of tanks followed suit. The protester climbed on top of the tank and began to talk with them. Eventually he climbed back down and the tank driver turned the engines on but the protester once again blocked the tank column.

Wider perspective of the Tank Man protest with the full column of tanks

Thousands more would be rounded up, arrested and sentenced to prison in show trials. As many as a thousand received death sentences that were carried out. This time two men, dressed in blue, approach the protester and escort him off the main avenue and disappeared into the crowd.

At least seven spent over two decades behind bars, and there names are Zhu Gengsheng, Li Yujun, Jiang Yaqun, Chang Jinqiang, Miao Deshun, Shi Xuezhi, and Yang Pu.  The last to be freed, that we know about, Miao Deshun, was freed on October 15, 2016. He was jailed for 27 years. They were living ghosts.

Below we share the 2021 statement of the Tiananmen Mothers and their continuing demands for truth, memory and justice.

Some Tiananmen mothers hold up photos of their loved ones.

Our Faith and Perseverance Will Never Change: On the 32nd Anniversary of the June Fourth Massacre

by the Tiananmen Mothers

June 1, 2021

[Translation by Human Rights in China]

On June 4, 1989, in a time of peace, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, under the leadership and command of the ruling authorities, sent tanks, armored vehicles, and soldiers with live ammunition onto the ten-mile Chang’an Avenue in Beijing. Without restraint or scruples, they shot and crushed unarmed students and citizens, and even destroyed the bodies to cover up their crimes. As a result, some of the victims’ families have heard nothing about their loved ones after they left home, not knowing if they were dead or alive, as if they had vanished from the face of the earth.

This massacre—devoid of humanity and sending shockwaves around the world—was stupefying and unconscionable. On that sleepless night, residents huddled in the streets and alleyways to discuss the escalating situation. Despite hearing gunshots, those good-hearted people still thought the army was merely shooting rubber bullets to scare the people. The students and residents at the scene were equally naive in clutching to their illusions about the government, until people around them started to collapse, their bright-red blood staining the ground. Only then did the crowds start to panic, flounder, weep, and take cover. Still more residents risked their own lives to rescue those who had fallen around them, using all means of transportation available to them—such as flatbed tricycles, carts, and vans—to rush the injured to nearby hospitals as fast as they could.

In the spirit of saving lives and healing wounds, hospital staff poured all they had in them into rescuing those injured. Many hospitals took in more people than they could possibly operate on and were forced to triage the patients for surgeries. Due to the overwhelming number of wounded people, many waited for hours without treatment. Because of the delay, some lost their limbs in otherwise preventable amputations and others their lives. In the face of tragedy, the selflessness and sacrifice of the ordinary residents of Beijing who rushed to rescue others despite their own risks was both laudable and gut-wrenching. Preserving life is the instinct of humanity. In stark contrast was the viciousness and brutality of the authorities who violated the constitution and sent in the army to crack down on the unarmed students and residents.

As to how many people were killed and injured in the end—the government has not uttered a single word for the past 32 years. All Chinese people have been stripped of the right to learn about the tragedy and even forbidden to openly commemorate the dead or hold the ruling Communist Party of China and the government responsible for the bloodbath. The government’s immorality and use of silent contempt to deprive each individual’s right to life have led to the blocking of all information related to the June Fourth massacre. Having grown up in a false sense of prosperous jubilance and enforced glorification of the government, many young people nowadays have no idea of or refuse to believe what happened on June 4, 1989, in the nation’s capital.

Back in 1949, Beijing, a city with a history of more than 3,000 years and had served as the capital of three dynasties, was peacefully liberated by the army without a single shot or cannon fired. Sadly, 40 years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the passionately patriotic people of Beijing were slaughtered by the martial law troops, who called themselves the “people’s army,” in a human tragedy of blood and tears.

We, relatives and families of the victims, have experienced the most painful agony in life, and our hearts have known no joy ever since. The middle-aged bereaved parents back then are now gray-haired seniors. They hope to see the law bring fairness and justice in their lifetime—a wish that, once fulfilled, will console their shattered hearts and allow the spirits of their children to rest in peace. And as for the children who lost their fathers or mothers in June Fourth, and traumatized by growing up in incomplete families, allowing the public to learn about the massacre will also bring them solace. However, almost 32 years later, we still don’t see any official attempt at unsealing and disclosing information about the bloodshed, and the killing in June 1989 remains a taboo for the government.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and a great deal of preparation and propagandistic efforts have been put into the celebration. In mid-April, the government also published a high-profile speech delivered on July 1, 2016 by Chinese President Xi Jinping—who also serves as the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission—at a commemoration of the CPC’S 95th founding anniversary. In his speech, Xi demanded that “all Party members shall put the people in the most prominent place in their hearts and adhere to the fundamental purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly, effectively realizing, protecting, and developing the people’s broadest interests. The people’s support, approval, satisfaction, and affirmation should be regarded as the fundamental standard for the success or failure of all of our work so that the Party may enjoy an inexhaustible source of strength.” “Our greatest threat as the ruling party is corruption. . . . [We must] be in fearful reverence of the people, the Party, and the law and discipline, and use our power with fairness, in accordance with the law, to the benefit of the people, and with integrity, to maintain the unsullied political nature of the incorruptible CPC members.”

In 1989, the social incident that was triggered by the student movement in Beijing and involving the participation of people from all walks of life in many major cities across the country—who used peaceful and rational demonstrations to voice their opposition to bureaucratic profiteering, embezzlement, and corruption to the government—was the most quintessential manifestation of a healthy society. When the public spotted embezzlement and corruption in the CPC’s powerful elite during the Reform and Opening Up, what the government should have done was to assess its performance based on the people’s demands and resolve social conflicts in accordance with the law, rather than seeing protests as turmoil and using the state’s military force to indiscriminately murder innocent people in broad daylight on the streets of Beijing.

We believe it is the unavoidable responsibility of the CPC and the Chinese government to resolve the June Fourth massacre, and redressing the tragedy is the first step to governing the country by law, respecting the people’s own agency, and ensuring their position as the masters of the country. Doing this would let the people CPC members have nothing to hide and seek no personal gain, and that the Party’s conduct is also subject to the supervision of the law. We look forward to the day when the CPC and the Chinese government can sincerely and courageously set the record straight and take up their due responsibility for the anti-human 1989 massacre in accordance with the law and the facts.

We have been calling for a peaceful dialogue with the government since the late 1990s to discuss the June Fourth tragedy and ways to resolve it in accordance with the law. To this end, we have publicly put forward the three demands of “truth, compensation, and accountability” and established a dialogue group. We believe that the truth can be made public by first releasing the names of the dead and then going step by step until the true history of the killing is eventually restored. Compensation should be paid to the relatives of the victims, and those responsible for ordering the shooting should be held legally accountable. We look forward to seeing the CPC and the Chinese government bow down and apologize to the entire nation for this atrocity!

Our group lost two more mothers of victims to illness in 2020, and we have lost 62 bereaved family members thus far. As the years go by, the parents in our group are getting older by the day, and some of the elderly have left us forever. However, our faith and perseverance will never change!

 [ Signers 122]

For more information visit:

Standoff At Tiananmen
How Chinese Students Shocked the World with a Magnificent Movement for Democracy and Liberty that Ended in the Tragic Tiananmen Massacre in 1989
http://www.standoffattiananmen.com/

Virtual Museum of China '89
http://museums.cnd.org/China89/

http://www.cnd.org/June4th/

Screams for help at China's secret 'black jails' - 27 Apr 09 AlJazeera
https://youtu.be/NsN4-A1G5zc

Seeking Justice, Chinese Land in Secret Jails / NY Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/world/asia/09jails.html

A piece of red cloth by Cui Jian (music video - song sang by him in the Square)
https://youtu.be/l8UPST1ZKSw

Frontline Documentary Tankman
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/