Today marks the anniversary of the bloody massacre of hundreds of unarmed peaceful pro-democracy protesters in Beijing and the arrest of tens of thousands of demonstrators in cities across China.
The Chinese government has never released a death toll of the June 4, 1989 crackdown, but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.
China had slid into economic chaos in 1988 with panic buying triggered by rising inflation peaking at more than 30 per cent in cities. Public discontent, coupled with the death of purged reform-minded Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang on April 15, 1989, set the stage for the demonstrations.
More than one million people flooded into central Beijing, keen to vent their anger against corruption, economic mismanagement, nepotism and poor career prospects for students. Gathering in Tiananmen Square, the students erected their own 'Goddess of Democracy' statue opposite the official portrait of the Communist revolutionary leader Chairman Mao Zedong.
More than one million people flooded into central Beijing, keen to vent their anger against corruption, economic mismanagement, nepotism and poor career prospects for students. Gathering in Tiananmen Square, the students erected their own 'Goddess of Democracy' statue opposite the official portrait of the Communist revolutionary leader Chairman Mao Zedong.
The Tiananmen Massacre was precipitated by the peaceful gatherings of students, workers, and others in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and other Chinese cities in April 1989, driven by the hope for a better future, they were simply calling for freedom of the press and for some government accountability, and the imminent problems of corruption, and began the largest political protest in the history of Communist China. #
The government responded to the intensifying protests in late May 1989 by declaring martial law.Overnight on 3 to 4 June, the government sent tens of thousands of armed troops and hundreds of armoured military vehicles into the city centre to enforce martial law and forcibly clear the streets of demonstrators. The government wanted to 'restore order' in the capital.
As they approached the demonstrations, troops opened fire on crowds of protesters and onlookers. They gave no warning before they started shooting.A night of bloodshed on June 3rd resulted with over 2,000 of protestors being killed.As the troops kept firing into the crowds, some of those running away were shot in the back. Others were crushed to death by military vehicles. Brave, innocent, the Chinese government has never accepted responsibility for the massacre or held any officials legally accountable for the killings. despite individual souls, shotdown and massacred triggering shock and outrage across the world.
The Tiananmen protests were immortalised in Western media on 5 June through the image of a lone man in a white shirt carrying shopping bags, facing an imposing column of military tanks sent by the government to disperse protesters. The man is known simply as Tank Man: his identity has never been confirmed.
Tank Man would not let the military vehicles pass. He succeeded. Eventually, he was pulled out of the way of danger by onlookers. But the image of unarmed man versus tank quickly came to symbolise the struggle of the Tiananmen protesters - peaceful protest met with military might.
'It demonstrates one man's extraordinary courage, standing up in front of a row of tanks, being prepared to sacrifice his own life for the sake of social justice' Stuart Franklin, Tank Man photographer
Stuart Franklin took the Tank Man photograph.
Tank Man would not let the military vehicles pass. He succeeded. Eventually, he was pulled out of the way of danger by onlookers. But the image of unarmed man versus tank quickly came to symbolise the struggle of the Tiananmen protesters - peaceful protest met with military might.
'It demonstrates one man's extraordinary courage, standing up in front of a row of tanks, being prepared to sacrifice his own life for the sake of social justice' Stuart Franklin, Tank Man photographer
Stuart Franklin took the Tank Man photograph.
Tank Man
In the following short film below he talks about how he came to capture what would become one of the most iconic images of the twentieth century.
In the aftermath long prison sentences were given out, one of which was for 17 years for simply throwing paint at a portrait of Mao Zedong. We should take a minute and think about those sacrifices and all those who died, so that their actions have not been in vain. Sadly brutal suppression and censorship has continued to this day, that condemns the Chinese nation and its people to a future without freedom.
Today many activists are still being ruthlessly persecuted by the Chinese Authorities, and the climate of free expression remains stifling, with scores of writers still being silenced, also many social media sites are still banned, and three decades later, China, under President Xi Jinping, is undergoing the worst crackdown on human rights since the Tiananmen massacre. Hopes that China would gradually liberalize politically as it opened up economically have been dashed.
The Chinese regime to this day continues to bury the truth of what happened in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Tiananmen remains one of the most censored issues in an internet and social media environment that has become increasingly restrictive since Xi Jinping became president in 2012.Young Chinese below the age of 35 today either know nothing about it or believe that it was the protesters who were the criminals. A regime that sent tanks and guns to slaughter its people now seeks to hide the evidence, threaten its critics, eliminate alternative ideas and impose absolute control. Seeking to suppress every form of freedom, with Pro-democracy activists being jailed, and in every corner of China's territory, from Xinjiang to Hong Kong, that has also seen critics abroad being intimidated, threatened and, in the worst cases, kidnapped.The Chinese government has never accepted responsibility for the massacre or held any officials legally accountable for the killings. It has been unwilling to conduct an investigation into the events or release data on those who were killed, injured, forcibly disappeared, or imprisoned.
For those who participated or observed the events of 1989, however, the search for truth goes on. Memories have not faded. The hard facts of the massacre are etched into history.No one can erase it; no power, however mighty, can alter it; and no words or tongues, however clever, can deny it.
Chinese censors scrubbing the internet of any words or symbols that could be used to reference the Tiananmen Square massacre in the run-up to todays anniversary had a new target in their sights: a bridge in Beijing where a rare protest was staged last year. As the 34th anniversary of the 1989 massacre approached, anyone searching in Chinese for Sitong Bridge on Baidu maps will have drawn a blank.
On 13 October 2022 white banners with large red characters criticising the Chinese Communist party (CCP) were hung over the bridge near Beijing’s university district in advance of a major CCP congress. According to pictures posted on social media, the road sign for Sitong Bridge has been removed. Searches on Baidu for Sitong Bridge return the message: “No related places were found.”
It is still possible to search for the bridge using the traditional Chinese characters used in Hong Kong and Taiwan, rather than the simplified characters used on the mainland. And it is still possible to find related locations, such as “Sitong Bridge East” – a nearby bus stop – on Baidu. October’s Sitong Bridge banners called for “freedom”, “respect” and the right to be “citizens, not slaves”, as well as the removal of Xi Jinping, China’s leader, who was about to begin an unprecedented third term as the CCP’s general secretary. The man responsible for the banners, Peng Lifa, was detained by police shortly after they appeared and has not been seen since.
He has become known as Bridge Man, a reference to the Tank Man of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Peng’s stunt precipitated the White Paper protests, which called for an end to the zero-Covid policy that swept Chinese cities in late November and early December. It was a period of mass unrest the likes of which have not been seen in China since 1989.
Since this day a candlelight vigil has been held in Hong Kong to remember the victims, but the authorities banned the event in 2020. In 2021, union leader Lee Cheuk Yan, along with seven others, was sentenced to 14 months in prison for “inciting, organising and participating” in the candlelight vigil on the 4th of June 2020.
Police in Hong Kong have again detained pro-democracy activists on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Authorities have banned public commemoration of the 1989 incident, which saw China crush peaceful protests in Beijing with tanks and troops. However, dozens of candlelight vigils are expected to take place in cities around the world.
Among those detained was 67-year-old campaigner Alexandra Wong, widely known as "Grandma Wong". Amid a tense evening in Hong Kong, she was detained while carrying flowers near Victoria Park, where vigils had been held for decades. The leader of one of Hong Kong's main opposition parties has also been detained and placed in a police van. Chan Po Ying, a veteran pro-democracy activist who heads the League of Social Democrats party, was holding an LED candle and two flowers. Mak Yin Ting, former head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, was also detained and subsequently released. Police later said they had made one arrest and taken 23 people to police stations for investigation.
Events to mark the 1989 massacre in Beijing are banned in mainland China. Hong Kong was previously the only Chinese city where these commemorations were allowed, under the city's semi-autonomous economic, political and legal set up - known as "one country, two systems" - established when the city handed over to China by the UK in 1997. But public events to mark the anniversary have since been outlawed, after the Chinese government imposed a strict national security law outlawing many forms of dissent in 2020. The annual commemorations have not been held since 2019, after being initially banned under Hong Kong's Covid regulations.
The Chinese government has long ignored domestic and international calls for justice for the Tiananmen Massacre, and some of the sanctions that the European Union and US imposed in response have over the years been weakened or evaded. The lack of a sustained, coordinated, international response to the massacre and ensuing crackdown is one factor in Beijing’s increasingly brazen human rights violations.Three decades on from the Tiananmen Massacre the human rights situation for all who live under China’s rule has hit an all-time low and repression across all regions and occupied territories.
The spirit of the Tiananmen movement continues to burn in the hearts of veterans of 1989 and younger generations of activists who fight for a more just China.We must continue to support all those that fight against state oppression and censorship and never forget the tragic legacy of Tinanamen Square that continues to haunt us.,
China’s government wants us to forget what happened 34 years ago today in Tiananmen Square.The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. We must remember
In remembrance of the heroes of the Tiananmen democracy movement and victims of the massacre in Beijing on 4 June 1989 Support the democracy struggle today! Defend China democrats and workers, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet and the Uyghur peoples.
