May 35

[Randy W]

The SCMP on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/10156377364969820/

 

Hongkongers remember Tiananmen Square crackdown

 

South China Morning Post

6 hours ago ·

 

Quote

Tens of thousands, many dressed in black, gathered in Hong Kong on June 4 for the annual vigil in memory of the Tiananmen Square crackdown

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/10156377364969820/

Edited June 5, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

30th anniversary coming up - from the SCMP on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/1821763484589799/

South China Morning Post

5 hrs ·

Quote

For Chen Guang, an artist and former soldier, the memories of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown still haunt him 30 years later.

 

Edited June 5, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

The high price of denial: the cost to China of sweeping the Tiananmen crackdown under the carpet

• Three decades have passed since the Tiananmen Square crackdown when troops fired on student-led pro-democracy protesters. The shots were heard around the country and reverberate today despite persistent official censorship of the event
• For those 30 years the Communist Party has refused to revisit June 4, doubling down against calls to check its power

 

 

 

 

 

The 800 yuan from You’s work unit was supposed to compensate her for the loss of her spouse’s life; but she returned it. “I couldn’t use the money. I felt that this is a person’s life, this is the price of a human’s life,” she said.

 

. . .

 

The Tiananmen protests emerged in the 1980s from the political soul-searching of post-Cultural Revolution China. The public and the political elite were keen to ensure there were enough checks and balances in the system to avoid a repeat of the decade-long calamity that had left the country in ruins.

While Western-style multiparty democracy was always off the agenda, there was debate within the party and intelligentsia about better oversight of the ruling organisation and some degree of separation between its political and executive functions.

“It should be a system to supervise the power of the Communist Party. Power cannot be monopolised,” former party general secretary Zhao Ziyang wrote in his memoir.

 

. . .

 

“Ensuring stability is a child of June 4. After June 4, maintaining stability with force has become necessary,” said Bao Pu, son of Bao Tong, aide to Zhao.

 

. . .

 

Instead,the party has pursued a neo-authoritarian, inward-looking approach to rule, advocating a strong state to restore national glory. The approach has added fuel to nationalism in China and stifled the idea that China should learn other forms of government, including Western democracy.

 

. . .

 

But allowing too much nationalism can backfire, observers say.

Zheng said one example was the criticism the authorities were facing at home over talks to end the trade war with the United States, with nationalistic internet users in China accusing Beijing of too much comprise with Washington.

“There is enormous pressure with the trade talks. The Chinese public thinks China is surrendering to the US. The trade delegation is facing a lot of pressure and there is a lot of criticism online,” Zheng said.

 

. . .

 

n addition,the 30-year waiting game has fostered widespread distrust in Hong Kong and Taiwan of the party, undermining Beijing’s long-stated aim of bringing Taiwan back into its fold.

So much so that last year, former Beijing-friendly Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou repeated his position that discussion of unification would not be possible if the official assessment of June 4 was not reversed.

Wang Kung-yi,a political-science professor of Chinese Culture University in Taipei, said the Tiananmen crackdown gave a lasting bad impression of the way the party dealt with people.

. . .

The next instalment in this series will look at how June 4 transformed the political landscape in Hong Kong.

 

[Randy W]

[Randy W]

from the SCMP on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/459623841252416/

South China Morning Post

Y

Quote

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong to honour the victims of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

 

Edited June 5, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/2455909384632915/

Why the wounds from Tiananmen Square crackdown haven't healed, 30 years on

 

South China Morning Post

2 hours ago ·

Quote

 

"We thought the army would never open fire on civilians": dissidents tell us why China can never heal from the Tiananmen Square crackdown, 30 years on.

 

Edited June 5, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

Adrift abroad amid a sense of loss and longing, what became of ‘brightest and best’ Tiananmen Square dissidents?

• Some 400 intellectuals, students and officials became exiles in wake of the June 4 crackdown, settling in Europe, the United States and Taiwan
• Once determined to remember events of 1989 and promote democracy from overseas, time has led to disarray and infighting in the ranks

Exiled filmmaker Su Xiaokang remembers the precise moment he cut all ties with China, and knew he would no longer call it his motherland. It was the day in 2003, as he scattered the ashes of his late parents in the waters of Bohai Bay in northeastern China, near Tianjin.

That brief trip to mainland China, allowed by the Chinese authorities with conditions, came 14 years after he fled the country in the wake of the June 4, 1989, crackdown on protesters at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

He arrived too late to see his ailing father one last time. His mother died much earlier, two years into his life in exile.

He found a China that had changed so much.

 

. . .

 

That feeling of alienation, of belonging neither here nor there, is one Su shares with many of the 400 dissident intellectuals, students and officials who became exiles in the wake of the crackdown.

They settled in Europe, the United States and Taiwan, determined to remember the events of 1989 and press on with promoting democracy on the mainland. Most also expected to return home once Beijing apologised for sending in the tanks and ordering soldiers to shoot civilians.

But there has been no apology or vindication. Instead, the Chinese authorities worked to erase the memory of the bloody incident, forbidding the reporting, discussion or commemoration of the event.

. . .

Worn down by waiting, the overseas Chinese pro-democracy movement became fraught by disagreement and infighting. Even its most prominent members, once media celebrities, were mostly out of sight.

. . .

Dissidents say the discord in their ranks is partly due to the Communist Party’s never-ending harassment, infiltration and sabotage. They say the party plants spies and informants in their midst, and fabricates and spreads rumours about individuals and groups.

 

 

[Randy W]

Tiananmen Square Massacre: Black Night In June (2019)

 

Arthur Kent

Published on May 16, 2019

 

This new film by Arthur Kent recounts the June 4, 1989 assault by the People’s Liberation Army on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

 

 

 

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

‘Repent’ for Tiananmen crackdown, Taipei urges Beijing

• Taiwan will keep pointing the way to democracy for the mainland, self-ruled island says

 

Beijing must “sincerely repent” for the bloody crackdown of pro-democracy demonstrators on and around Tiananmen Square three decades ago and promote democratic reforms, Taipei said on Monday ahead of the sensitive anniversary.

. . .

“[Mainland] China has to sincerely repent for the June 4 incident and proactively push for democratic reforms,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.

The council said Beijing had been telling “lies” to cover up the events of 1989 and “distorting” the truth.

 

 

[Randy W]

from Abacus

 

China’s Great Firewall threatens to erase memories of Tiananmen

VPN crackdown and sophisticated censorship make it harder to access outside information

Just one day ahead of the Tiananmen anniversary, throngs of overseas users complained on Weibo that they had trouble publishing posts. A pop-up message told them “server data synchronization might be delayed,” prompting some to turn to special apps that help them find their way back inside the Great Firewall. The irony of that wasn’t missed by users.

 

“I’m under special care by Weibo again,” one user quipped. “I have waited for more than an hour [for my post to go through] but no update. I have to go back to the other side [of the wall] to send a Weibo post. ”

 

In China, government censors aren’t directly involved in monitoring individual social media posts. Instead, they rely on companies such as Weibo to do the job, and those who fail to comply face punishment. In April, Weibo banned all posts with the word “Leica” after a promotional video featuring the camera brand appeared, depicting a Western journalist documenting the Tiananmen crackdown. Keywords relating to the protests have long been prohibited.

. . .

As traces of Tiananmen memories fade from China’s internet, perhaps what happens in the physical world is a better reminder of the lives that were taken away three decades ago.

The Beijing Subway announced on Weibo that several exits of the Muxidi station are shut down this week until further notice, according to Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK. Older Beijingers would know that Muxidi was the place where many student protesters were killed during the 1989 crackdown.

 

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

Tiananmen Square: Japanese diplomats feared Chinese troops would storm embassy

• Workers burned documents and planned to escape on bicycles as the People’s Liberation Army responded to democracy protests, official recalls
• A Chinese military unit sprayed gunfire at an accommodation block for Japanese diplomats

 

 

A meeting had been convened as early as mid-May to draw up plans for the evacuation of the embassy in the event that the crisis worsened dramatically, with one scenario being the Chinese military entering and occupying the embassy.

 

Matsumoto, now 67, said it was decided that personnel levels in the embassy would be quickly drawn down, with families of the staff and female officials the first to depart. Ultimately, the embassy was scheduled to be reduced to two young officials fluent in Chinese, including Matsumoto.

A senior diplomat told the two men who had been chosen to remain until the last possible moment that they were to “escape in ordinary clothes if the military breaks into the building” and to mingle with the crowds to make their getaways.

They were instructed to take two old bicycles and to head for the port city of Tianjin, more than 100km away, and to try to make their way back to Japan.

. . .

National broadcaster NHK has run an interview with a former soldier in the Chinese army who sympathised with the protesters’ calls for democracy and used a military truck without permission to deliver food and water to the students.

Shocked at the ferocity of the government crackdown – including seeing a young woman shot in the head in front of him – Bian Ning said his resentment towards the authorities grew. Punished for stealing an army vehicle, he fled to Japan the same year and has never returned to China.

Now 56, he has worked at a dissident magazine calling for democracy in China but was told at the embassy in Tokyo when he went to renew his passport that he would only be granted a new document if he stopped criticising the Communist Party of China, stopped working on the dissident magazine and provided the Chinese authorities with information on everyone he knew in the pro-democracy movement.

None of the conditions were acceptable to Bian and he refused.

Bian now works as a long-distance truck driver in Japan. His father died in 2018, nearly three decades after he was last able to see him, and he was able to meet his 81-year-old mother for the first time since 1989 when she came to Japan earlier this year.

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

‘Record 180,000 turnout’ at Hong Kong candlelight vigil to mark Tiananmen crackdown’s 30th anniversary but for many, city’s controversial extradition bill was extra spur

• Many of those in Victoria Park crowd felt compelled to attend the annual vigil to say ‘no’ to contentious bill
• At its peak, the crowd spilled over to lawn areas and park’s running paths, as latecomers kept streaming in

 

 

 

While they remembered the bloodshed of 30 years ago in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, many of those in the record-breaking crowd in Victoria Park on Tuesday said they also felt compelled to attend the annual vigil to say “no” to the contentious bill, which would allow the transfer of criminal suspects to mainland China.

Critics of the bill fear people could face vague charges and unfair trials for political reasons such as attending June 4 commemorations.

The turnout for the 30th anniversary was more than 180,000, according to the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organises the annual vigil in Victoria Park, as widespread discontent with the bill played its part. Police said 37,000 attended at the peak.

 

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/464538714115978/

South China Morning Post

 

Quote

A record crowd of more than 180,000 people gathered in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to mark the 30th anniversary of the crackdown on Tiananmen Square.

 

Edited June 5, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

This year may be different - from the SCMP on Facebook

 

Quote

Hong Kong has held candlelight vigils to remember the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown for over 30 years. This year, the event is under threat.

https://www.facebook.com/355665009819/posts/3625838020766931/

Edited June 5, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

Hong Kong police cite Covid-19 threat in banning Tiananmen Square vigil

 

• The prohibition comes as city records five new locally transmitted coronavirus cases in past two days
• Vigil organisers say supporters still plan to enter Victoria Park on June 4 to observe a moment of silence, and ask public to light candles across city