Tiananmen Square Massacre: 34 years later still no justice or freedom.

 “This is for the lost souls of June 4th.” - Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, 2010

Thirty four years ago the Chinese Pro-Democracy Movement that had taken to the streets in April of 1989 and occupied Tiananmen Square for months 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 were shot and killed or run over and crushed by tanks of the so-called "People's Liberation Army."

 A 2017 declassified British diplomatic cable revealed that "at least 10,000 people were killed. The Chinese Communist regime still defends committing this massacre, and is punishing those who seek to remember and observe the date.

In Hong Kong, commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre with white flowers, signs, or a hunger strike lead to arrests.

It's a poignant example of eroding free speech and political rights. Charges of 'sedition' could result in lengthy imprisonment. https://t.co/tUpJR5YWKg

— Nathan Law 羅冠聰 (@nathanlawkc) June 3, 2023

 George Orwell wrote in "As I Please" in the Tribune on February 4, 1944 that "[t]he really frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits 'atrocities' but that it attacks the concept of objective truth; it claims to control the past as well as the future."

We are witnessing this attempt to silence the victims, erase and rewrite the history of the 1989 Tiananmen protests and the crackdown and massacre that began on June 3, 1989 through social media and in the real world. People are being arrested for engaging in silent, nonviolent protests in remembrance of students and workers murdered by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) on orders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Making this known is the most effective method to combat it.

PLEASE SPREAD: Imprisoned #HongKong human right defender and lawyer #ChowHangTung #鄒幸彤 is put under solitary confinement as she goes on a 34-hour long hunger strike today to commemorate the #June4th #TiananmenSquareMassacre.
"Victoria Park is where candlelight is lit." pic.twitter.com/Vuc1nRPeFi

— Frances Hui 許穎婷 (@frances_hui) June 3, 2023

The Czech writer Milan Kundera wrote that "[t]he struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."  This is the challenge presented by the Chinese Communist Party in its effort to erase the mass protests, months long occupation and crackdown in Tiananmen Square, and across China. It is also why we must remember and honor courageous Chinese dissidents such as Liu Xiaobo martyred for his commitment to nonviolence and democracy.

My performance artist friend Sanmu just got arrested in Hong Kong, he was trying to perform on the street on June/3 to commemorate 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, during his arrest, he yelled “, Hongkongers have no fear! Don’t forget June 4th!” pic.twitter.com/itYnfDiSii

— Kacey Wong (@KaceyWong15) June 3, 2023

Last night participated in a candlelight vigil hosted by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation where I listened to eyewitnesses who were present in the square in 1989, and those persecuted today for holding vigils in remembrance.

Some of my photos fm @VoCommunism’s candlelight vigil in Washington, DC, ahead of the 34th annv of the #TiananmenSquareMassacre of pro-#democracy students by the #CCP/#CPC & #PLA on #4June 1989. 1/4#六四 #34週年 #China #HK #Tibetans #Uyghurs #NeverForget #FreePoliticalPrisoners pic.twitter.com/IgstLp5fih

— Dan Garrett (@DanGarrett97) June 3, 2023

This blog will continue to do its small part by sharing the 2023 declaration by the Tiananmen Mothers, and translated by Human Rights in China.

Tiananmen Mothers: “We Persist in Our Three Demands as Always: Truth, Compensation, and Accountability 

— On the 34th Anniversary of the June Fourth Massacre” （Statement）

Essay by the Tiananmen Mothers

May 27, 2023

HRIC Note: On the 34th anniversary of the June Fourth Massacre, the Tiananmen Mothers have authorized Human Rights in China to publish this essay. See our website for more information on June Fourth and the Tiananmen Mothers.

[Translation by Mi Ling Tsui]

The year 2023 marks the 34th anniversary of the June Fourth Massacre that unfolded on the night of June 3-4, 1989, on the ten-mile-long Chang'an Avenue in Beijing, the capital of China.

Though 34 years have passed, for us, family members of those killed, the pain of losing our loved ones in that one night has tormented us to this day, in a nightmare that has never let go. In a time of peace, the Chinese government flouted the world’s condemnation and brazenly mobilized the nation’s military power against unarmed students and ordinary people, in a massacre that shocked the world—the June Fourth Massacre. We, families of June Fourth victims, will not relinquish our determination to seek justice for our loved ones every single day that the authorities refuse to make public the truth about the massacre—until justice is done.

Since the 33rd anniversary of June Fourth, in 2022, seven members of our group have passed away (one of them died of old age and physical decline in the first half of the year, and the other six died in the second half of the year). Every time we heard the news of the passing of a fellow family member, we were struck with great sorrow, especially because we could not visit the families of the deceased immediately due to pandemic restrictions. Our hearts are heavy, with no relief.

As we commemorate our loved ones on this 34th anniversary of June Fourth, we honor the deceased family members here—in order to restore history, bear witness to how the victims were killed, recall the harm and suffering inflicted on the victims’ families by the troops who perpetrated the massacre, and so that people can know their misery and remember their desire and unwavering determination to defend their lawful rights and seek justice for their loved ones. Although their lives are gone, their final wishes are still with us.

[ Full document here ]

Signers (116)