Hong Kong marks Tiananmen 25th anniversary as China clamps down

2014-06-04

A man takes a picture with his mobile phone as people hold candles to commemorate China's 1989 Tiananmen Square events during a vigil in Hong Kong, June 4, 2014. AFP

At least 100,000 people gathered in downtown Hong Kong on Wednesday for a candlelight vigil to commemorate those who died 25 years ago when People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops brought a bloody end to weeks of student-led mass democracy protests on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Amid banners which read, "Overturn the verdict on June 4!" the crowds, who filled six soccer fields in Hong Kong's Victoria Park, chanted and sang songs, before holding a one-minute silence in front of a replica statue of the student movement's Goddess of Democracy.

Some of the names of those who died were read out over a public address system, while footage of the crackdown was played on large, open-air screens, as participants bowed to show respect to the dead.

Police said 99,500 people were present during the event's most crowded period, while organizers said 180,000 had turned out, local media reported. The rally ended with a mass rendition of a Cantonese version of "Can you hear the people sing?" from the musical Les Miserables.

Main organizer and Labour Party chairman Lee Cheuk-Yan called on the crowd to raise their candles so Chinese President Xi Jinping would see their lights, telling them: "I don't know what the government fears, banning all discussion about June 4, but here in Hong Kong, we will keep fighting to the end."

The rally came amid a massive, nationwide security operation across the internal border in mainland China which saw hundreds of activists detained or placed under surveillance, while online censors blocked and deleted posts, searches and links related to the 25th anniversary.

In Beijing, the authorities deployed thousands of police and volunteers to set up security checkpoints and patrol the streets, especially in the vicinity of Tiananmen Square, while foreign news outlets have been warned off covering the anniversary or risk visa problems next time they try to renew.

Mainland China

Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia said he was under virtual house arrest at his home.

"There are two plainclothes police sitting in the corridor outside my apartment," Hu said. "Yesterday, when I went down to throw out the trash, I found four or five officers sitting in the grounds, as well as marked and unmarked police cars."

"They weren't only plainclothes police there either," Hu said.

A number of Chinese netizens posted pictures of themselves wearing black clothes and glasses on Tiananmen Square, he said.

Meanwhile, police took the families of victims to pay their respects at their graves.

"It was the same as last year," Zhang Xianling, a member of the Tiananmen Mothers victims' group, told RFA. "The only difference was that this year they took us in a regular car and not in a police car."

She said she and her husband had laid wreaths at the grave of their dead son under the watchful gaze of dozens of plainclothes police at the cemetery.

"They had people posted at every entrance," Zhang said. "There were a lot of people around us, but they didn't interfere."

"This was such a huge tragedy, and so many people's lives were affected," she said. "And yet this huge ruling party of this huge country can't face up to the reality of history."

Information suppressed

The ruling Chinese Communist Party has ignored growing calls for a reappraisal of the June 4 crackdown, suppressing any attempt at public memorials.

Mainland Chinese resident Wang Zang said he knew little about the events of the "Beijing Spring" of 1989 until he stumbled upon photos of the crackdown on the Internet.

"The oppression, the massacre of June 4, 1989 hasn't disappeared with all this time," Wang said. "It was a special event, very special."

"Now it is taking on new forms; it's changing all the time," he said. "It's not over."

Hong Kong, where a museum dedicated to the 1989 student movement and subsequent crackdown opened in April, remains one of the few places in China where the violence is openly commemorated.

The annual vigil is increasingly attended by visitors from China, including a mainland tourist who gave only his surname Li.

"The police called me yesterday and said I'd have to report to them when I get back," Li said.

"I don't know how things will go after I get back; I'll have to see when I get there," he said.

Others, like one mainland tourist surnamed Wang, stumbled across the event by accident after arriving in the former British colony for some other purpose.

"We haven't had much information about June 4 [in China]," Wang said. "I just happened to be passing by and saw the scene."

He added: "If there's any trouble, I'll leave, but if not, I'll stay awhile."

A Hong Kong student surnamed Xu who came with a group of classmates said they had been encouraged to attend by their teachers.

"According to what I saw on TV, a lot of people died on Tiananmen Square, that's all I know," Xu said.

"Our school didn't give an opinion; they just said we should come here and observe, and learn for ourselves what June 4 is all about," he added.

Marking the anniversary

Earlier on Wednesday, Lee Cheuk-yan called on the territory's lawmakers in the Legislative Council (LegCo) to stand for a minute's silence in honor of the victims of June 4, but was ruled out of order by the chairman, who called a two-minute recess to allow legislators to do as they wished.

"I felt that the Legislative Council should honor our compatriots who died with a minute's silence, but it's too bad that he stopped me from doing it," Lee told RFA in an interview earlier in the day.

"It would show that we supported the demands of the victims for a democratic China," he said. "But [the chairman] said it wasn't our custom, and that we only did it for serious disasters."

"But we think June 4, 1989 was a terrible disaster."

Hong Kong political commentator Wu Yisan said it had been no mean feat for the city to keep alive the memory of those events.

"It's really admirable that democratic legislators call year after year for a minute's silence," he said, adding that the LegCo chairman should show more responsibility for Hong Kong's democracy.

In Taiwan, President Ma Ying-jeou described the events of 25 years ago as an "enormous historical wound," and called on the Chinese Communist Party to address the issue.

Beijing should "speedily redress the wrongs to ensure that such a tragedy will never happen again," Ma said, echoing criticism of the crackdown from former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a White House statement said the United States would continue to "urge the Chinese government to guarantee the universal rights and fundamental freedoms that are the birthright of all Chinese citizens."

Reported by Qiao Long and Xin Yu for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Lin Jing, Grace Kei Lai-see and Lau Wan for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Link to original story on RFA website