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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54184510

Op-ed by Rowena He, research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and author of “Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China.” As a scholar of Tiananmen, she was denied a work visa to return to her associate professor position at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Archived

“They won’t let us go to Wan’an Cemetery.” Days before the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, members of the Tiananmen Mothers were informed by the Beijing Municipal Security Bureau that they would be barred from visiting the graves of loved ones killed in 1989.

For over three decades, Wan’an Cemetery served as the sole sanctioned space where grieving families could mourn together each June 4 – though always under heavy police surveillance. When I showed footage of the cemetery grounds to my Harvard freshman class 15 years ago, my students were stunned to see surveillance cameras deliberately installed over the burial sites of Tiananmen victims. Even the headstones told a story of fear: many originally omitted “June 4” as the date of death, with families adding it only years later.

[...]

Many of the student protesters who survived are now parents themselves, but the repression has only intensified. After allowing these heavily monitored cemetery visits for more than 30 years, the regime that killed their children is now depriving the Tiananmen Mothers of even this final act of remembrance.

In spring 1989, the sudden death of Hu Yaobang – the reformist Communist Party general secretary who had been purged for his sympathetic stance toward the 1986-87 student movements – sparked massive protests across China. Students, joined by workers and citizens nationwide, took to the streets demanding democratic reform and an end to corruption. The peaceful demonstrations, highlighted by college students’ hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, ended on June 4 when the regime deployed over 200,000 People’s Liberation Army soldiers, equipped with tanks and machine guns, to assault its own people in the capital.

[...]

Even today, the full scale of the massacre – including the death toll – remains unknown. The mother of Yuan Li, a 29-year-old engineer who had been accepted to graduate school in the United States, searched 44 hospitals and saw over 400 bodies before finding her son at the Navy General Hospital. In her testimony, she described the day Yuan Li was cremated: she saw two large plastic bags emanating terrible smells, filled with corpses. “If death tolls are ever counted in the future,” she testified, “these poor children will remain nameless bodies.” Yuan Li is buried in Wan’an Cemetery.

[...]

The fear created by the massacre is best illustrated by a story shared by Professor Cui Weiping, the Chinese translator of Vaclav Havel’s “The Power of the Powerless.” After one family’s 28-year-old son was killed, the victim’s sister was abandoned by her boyfriend after he learned about her brother. When she later entered a new relationship, that man also left her upon learning about her family’s history. She and her mother made a painful decision: she would never mention her brother to anyone she planned to date. She eventually married and had a son. Neither her husband nor her child knows about the death – or even the existence – of this brother-in-law and uncle.

[...]

Knowing the delegitimization the massacre would bring, the regime constructed an official version of the 1989 events in the immediate aftermath of the military crackdown, even as arrests and purges continued nationwide.

[...]

Information collected by the Tiananmen Mothers, however, reveals that many victims had never joined the protests and never confronted the troops. Ma Chengfen, a veteran of the People’s Liberation Army, was shot and killed while sitting on the steps of her building chatting with neighbors. The youngest known victim, 9-year-old Lü Peng, was shot in the chest. The oldest, age 66, was killed inside a hutong while visiting relatives.

[...]

Two locations saw especially heavy casualties. At Muxidi, soldiers opened fire on crowds as troops entered the city. At Liubukou, tanks chased down students who had already peacefully evacuated the square and were heading back to their universities. Among them was Fang Zheng, a senior at Beijing Sports College, whose legs were crushed by a tank as he tried to push a freshman student walking beside him to safety.

[...]

The Tiananmen Mothers have been demanding truth and justice, resisting the official accounts imposed on them. In 2006, the group called for “truth and reconciliation.” The mother of Ya Aiguo, shot in the head and killed at age 22, questioned: “”Why did you use real guns and bullets on your people? Even if you kill a chicken or a lamb, you should apologize and compensate, right? Such a big China, such a big CCP – you killed my son, but you didn’t even say sorry. Are we citizens not allowed to say a word?”

[...]

Then COVID-19 hit, and a White Paper Generation emerged three decades after Tiananmen, despite the elaborate Patriotic Education Campaign in post-1989 China that gave rise to “wolf warrior” nationalism [...] After witnessing firsthand how the accounts of China’s COVID-19 experience that they had personally lived through were being reconstructed into a distorted official version of national memory, this new generation wanted to know what else they had been deceived about.

[...]

In the early 1990s, when I was a college student, on each June 4 my friends and I would light candles behind closed doors and shuttered windows. They cannot extinguish the candlelight in our hearts.

“People will one day put you on trial.” In 1989, this banner hung from the top of a major building at Renmin University of China. Those who ordered the massacre will not only be tried by the people, but also by the history they tried to suppress with power.

History is on our side.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54184510

Op-ed by Rowena He, research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and author of “Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China.” As a scholar of Tiananmen, she was denied a work visa to return to her associate professor position at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Archived

“They won’t let us go to Wan’an Cemetery.” Days before the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, members of the Tiananmen Mothers were informed by the Beijing Municipal Security Bureau that they would be barred from visiting the graves of loved ones killed in 1989.

For over three decades, Wan’an Cemetery served as the sole sanctioned space where grieving families could mourn together each June 4 – though always under heavy police surveillance. When I showed footage of the cemetery grounds to my Harvard freshman class 15 years ago, my students were stunned to see surveillance cameras deliberately installed over the burial sites of Tiananmen victims. Even the headstones told a story of fear: many originally omitted “June 4” as the date of death, with families adding it only years later.

[...]

Many of the student protesters who survived are now parents themselves, but the repression has only intensified. After allowing these heavily monitored cemetery visits for more than 30 years, the regime that killed their children is now depriving the Tiananmen Mothers of even this final act of remembrance.

In spring 1989, the sudden death of Hu Yaobang – the reformist Communist Party general secretary who had been purged for his sympathetic stance toward the 1986-87 student movements – sparked massive protests across China. Students, joined by workers and citizens nationwide, took to the streets demanding democratic reform and an end to corruption. The peaceful demonstrations, highlighted by college students’ hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, ended on June 4 when the regime deployed over 200,000 People’s Liberation Army soldiers, equipped with tanks and machine guns, to assault its own people in the capital.

[...]

Even today, the full scale of the massacre – including the death toll – remains unknown. The mother of Yuan Li, a 29-year-old engineer who had been accepted to graduate school in the United States, searched 44 hospitals and saw over 400 bodies before finding her son at the Navy General Hospital. In her testimony, she described the day Yuan Li was cremated: she saw two large plastic bags emanating terrible smells, filled with corpses. “If death tolls are ever counted in the future,” she testified, “these poor children will remain nameless bodies.” Yuan Li is buried in Wan’an Cemetery.

[...]

The fear created by the massacre is best illustrated by a story shared by Professor Cui Weiping, the Chinese translator of Vaclav Havel’s “The Power of the Powerless.” After one family’s 28-year-old son was killed, the victim’s sister was abandoned by her boyfriend after he learned about her brother. When she later entered a new relationship, that man also left her upon learning about her family’s history. She and her mother made a painful decision: she would never mention her brother to anyone she planned to date. She eventually married and had a son. Neither her husband nor her child knows about the death – or even the existence – of this brother-in-law and uncle.

[...]

Knowing the delegitimization the massacre would bring, the regime constructed an official version of the 1989 events in the immediate aftermath of the military crackdown, even as arrests and purges continued nationwide.

[...]

Information collected by the Tiananmen Mothers, however, reveals that many victims had never joined the protests and never confronted the troops. Ma Chengfen, a veteran of the People’s Liberation Army, was shot and killed while sitting on the steps of her building chatting with neighbors. The youngest known victim, 9-year-old Lü Peng, was shot in the chest. The oldest, age 66, was killed inside a hutong while visiting relatives.

[...]

Two locations saw especially heavy casualties. At Muxidi, soldiers opened fire on crowds as troops entered the city. At Liubukou, tanks chased down students who had already peacefully evacuated the square and were heading back to their universities. Among them was Fang Zheng, a senior at Beijing Sports College, whose legs were crushed by a tank as he tried to push a freshman student walking beside him to safety.

[...]

The Tiananmen Mothers have been demanding truth and justice, resisting the official accounts imposed on them. In 2006, the group called for “truth and reconciliation.” The mother of Ya Aiguo, shot in the head and killed at age 22, questioned: “”Why did you use real guns and bullets on your people? Even if you kill a chicken or a lamb, you should apologize and compensate, right? Such a big China, such a big CCP – you killed my son, but you didn’t even say sorry. Are we citizens not allowed to say a word?”

[...]

Then COVID-19 hit, and a White Paper Generation emerged three decades after Tiananmen, despite the elaborate Patriotic Education Campaign in post-1989 China that gave rise to “wolf warrior” nationalism [...] After witnessing firsthand how the accounts of China’s COVID-19 experience that they had personally lived through were being reconstructed into a distorted official version of national memory, this new generation wanted to know what else they had been deceived about.

[...]

In the early 1990s, when I was a college student, on each June 4 my friends and I would light candles behind closed doors and shuttered windows. They cannot extinguish the candlelight in our hearts.

“People will one day put you on trial.” In 1989, this banner hung from the top of a major building at Renmin University of China. Those who ordered the massacre will not only be tried by the people, but also by the history they tried to suppress with power.

History is on our side.

Op-ed by Rowena He, research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and author of “Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China.” As a scholar of Tiananmen, she was denied a work visa to return to her associate professor position at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Archived

“They won’t let us go to Wan’an Cemetery.” Days before the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, members of the Tiananmen Mothers were informed by the Beijing Municipal Security Bureau that they would be barred from visiting the graves of loved ones killed in 1989.

For over three decades, Wan’an Cemetery served as the sole sanctioned space where grieving families could mourn together each June 4 – though always under heavy police surveillance. When I showed footage of the cemetery grounds to my Harvard freshman class 15 years ago, my students were stunned to see surveillance cameras deliberately installed over the burial sites of Tiananmen victims. Even the headstones told a story of fear: many originally omitted “June 4” as the date of death, with families adding it only years later.

[...]

Many of the student protesters who survived are now parents themselves, but the repression has only intensified. After allowing these heavily monitored cemetery visits for more than 30 years, the regime that killed their children is now depriving the Tiananmen Mothers of even this final act of remembrance.

In spring 1989, the sudden death of Hu Yaobang – the reformist Communist Party general secretary who had been purged for his sympathetic stance toward the 1986-87 student movements – sparked massive protests across China. Students, joined by workers and citizens nationwide, took to the streets demanding democratic reform and an end to corruption. The peaceful demonstrations, highlighted by college students’ hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, ended on June 4 when the regime deployed over 200,000 People’s Liberation Army soldiers, equipped with tanks and machine guns, to assault its own people in the capital.

[...]

Even today, the full scale of the massacre – including the death toll – remains unknown. The mother of Yuan Li, a 29-year-old engineer who had been accepted to graduate school in the United States, searched 44 hospitals and saw over 400 bodies before finding her son at the Navy General Hospital. In her testimony, she described the day Yuan Li was cremated: she saw two large plastic bags emanating terrible smells, filled with corpses. “If death tolls are ever counted in the future,” she testified, “these poor children will remain nameless bodies.” Yuan Li is buried in Wan’an Cemetery.

[...]

The fear created by the massacre is best illustrated by a story shared by Professor Cui Weiping, the Chinese translator of Vaclav Havel’s “The Power of the Powerless.” After one family’s 28-year-old son was killed, the victim’s sister was abandoned by her boyfriend after he learned about her brother. When she later entered a new relationship, that man also left her upon learning about her family’s history. She and her mother made a painful decision: she would never mention her brother to anyone she planned to date. She eventually married and had a son. Neither her husband nor her child knows about the death – or even the existence – of this brother-in-law and uncle.

[...]

Knowing the delegitimization the massacre would bring, the regime constructed an official version of the 1989 events in the immediate aftermath of the military crackdown, even as arrests and purges continued nationwide.

[...]

Information collected by the Tiananmen Mothers, however, reveals that many victims had never joined the protests and never confronted the troops. Ma Chengfen, a veteran of the People’s Liberation Army, was shot and killed while sitting on the steps of her building chatting with neighbors. The youngest known victim, 9-year-old Lü Peng, was shot in the chest. The oldest, age 66, was killed inside a hutong while visiting relatives.

[...]

Two locations saw especially heavy casualties. At Muxidi, soldiers opened fire on crowds as troops entered the city. At Liubukou, tanks chased down students who had already peacefully evacuated the square and were heading back to their universities. Among them was Fang Zheng, a senior at Beijing Sports College, whose legs were crushed by a tank as he tried to push a freshman student walking beside him to safety.

[...]

The Tiananmen Mothers have been demanding truth and justice, resisting the official accounts imposed on them. In 2006, the group called for “truth and reconciliation.” The mother of Ya Aiguo, shot in the head and killed at age 22, questioned: “”Why did you use real guns and bullets on your people? Even if you kill a chicken or a lamb, you should apologize and compensate, right? Such a big China, such a big CCP – you killed my son, but you didn’t even say sorry. Are we citizens not allowed to say a word?”

[...]

Then COVID-19 hit, and a White Paper Generation emerged three decades after Tiananmen, despite the elaborate Patriotic Education Campaign in post-1989 China that gave rise to “wolf warrior” nationalism [...] After witnessing firsthand how the accounts of China’s COVID-19 experience that they had personally lived through were being reconstructed into a distorted official version of national memory, this new generation wanted to know what else they had been deceived about.

[...]

In the early 1990s, when I was a college student, on each June 4 my friends and I would light candles behind closed doors and shuttered windows. They cannot extinguish the candlelight in our hearts.

“People will one day put you on trial.” In 1989, this banner hung from the top of a major building at Renmin University of China. Those who ordered the massacre will not only be tried by the people, but also by the history they tried to suppress with power.

History is on our side.

Archived

The president of Palau on Tuesday defended his small Pacific island nation's diplomatic ties with Taiwan amid pressure from China and called for closer cooperation with Japan on economic development, maritime security and ocean conservation.

In an interview with Kyodo News in Tokyo, Surangel Whipps, co-chairing an international conference of island nations from Wednesday, said small island nations must be free to choose their own international partners.

Palau is one of just 12 countries with formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the self-governed island that China claims as a province to be reunified with the mainland.

Whipps said Palau wants Japan to expand investment in tourism, fisheries and other sectors while working together to promote a rules-based order and sustainable ocean management.

According to Whipps, Beijing has repeatedly offered economic incentives to persuade Palau to switch recognition from Taiwan to China, but he stressed that diplomatic decisions are a matter of national sovereignty and should not be dictated by larger countries.

[...]

"You cannot tell me that I cannot recognize Taiwan. That's our sovereign choice as a country," he said. Palau has maintained ties with Taiwan since 1999.

The Palauan leader also accused Chinese vessels of conducting unauthorized research and survey activities inside Palau's exclusive economic zone and said authorities have documented equipment being deployed in its waters.

He suggested some of Beijing's actions reflect a broader attitude toward small island nations and their maritime rights.

"I was talking to one Chinese ambassador, and his comment to me was...You're a small country. You shouldn't have such a big ocean. I think that's not right," Whipps said.

[...]

Such activities, he added, violate international law and undermine sustainable marine management, reaffirming Palau's support for a "free and open Indo-Pacific" based on international rules.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54132590

Archived

Solomon Islands’ newly elected Prime Minister Matthew Wale said on June 3 he would be “reviewing” a secretive 2022 security pact with Beijing, which rattled Canberra and Washington by opening the door to Chinese forces in the South Pacific.

Asked about that pact alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Solomons leader – who was elected in May – said he had been “praying and fasting” about the Chinese security deal.

“We are going to be reviewing as we are reviewing other security agreements that we have with many other countries,” he said.

[...]

Australia and the United States have been sharply critical of the deal over concerns it could allow a permanent Chinese navy presence in the South Pacific.

It was signed under one of Wale’s predecessors, Manasseh Sogavare, who was seen as Beijing’s staunchest ally in the South Pacific.

Wale said the deal contained a non-disclosure agreement and he had not seen it until just before his visit to Australia.

“I have had to remove certain people from key positions. I have not been afforded a copy, even, of that agreement, until a day before I left, so I have not had a good look at it,” he told a news conference in Canberra.

[...]

Australia is the largest aid donor to the country of 800,000 people that sits 2,000km to its north-east and historically provided police support during crises.

After the Solomons switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019 and signed the security pact, relations with Canberra and Washington deteriorated.

[...]

[Australian PM] Albanese said on June 3 the two countries would begin work on a “comprehensive” new treaty as well as deepen ties in policing, with Australia seeking to be the top security partner for the Pacific.

The treaty will be “underpinned by mutual trust, respect, and open dialogue”, Albanese added.

[...]

Australia’s offer to fund the expansion of the Solomons’ own police force had stalled under the previous Solomon Islands government, which allowed Chinese police to enter villages to collect household and biometric data.

Wale also said he was in discussions with Australia and the United States over financing for critical infrastructure such as ports.

[...]

Former Solomon Islands prime minister Sogavare had rejected US offers of infrastructure grants, instead opting to partner with Chinese state companies.

Australia has sought to bind South Pacific countries closer by striking treaties with a string of small but strategically located island states, Tuvalu, Nauru and Papua New Guinea, offering significant economic support in return for curbs on Chinese security ties.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54131639

Archived

Days before the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, several relatives of victims of the crackdown learned they would be forbidden this year from visiting their graves.

[...]

Members of the Tiananmen Mothers group that represents the families said they received notice from the Beijing Municipal Security Bureau that for the first time in more than 30 years, they will not be permitted on the premises of Wanan Cemetery, the final resting place of many of the victims, nor would they be allowed to hold their annual post-funerary rites ceremonies.

“They won’t let us go to Wanan Cemetery now, nor will they let us read sacrificial texts or eulogies,” Zhang Xianling, a member of Tiananmen Mothers [said].

“These actions, which used to be routine, are no longer permitted. Now we aren’t even allowed to go there, which is something that has never happened before.”

[...]

For decades, members of the Tiananmen Mothers group have traveled to Wan’an Cemetery every June 4th under police escort to pay their respects and Zhang had planned to do the same this year, but police have been stationed near her home since May 28, she said.

[...]

“There are two security guards at the community entrance, two police officers downstairs, and two cars—one police car and one civilian police car,” said Zhang. “The precautions are so strict, not to mention phone calls from foreign journalists.”

On Tuesday, the chief of police accompanied the guards, and Zhang laughed at all the attention she was getting, she said.

“So, I told them, ‘Since the chief is here, why don’t you accompany me out to have some fun?,’” she said, with a hint of sarcasm. “So he drove me to the Olympic Forest Park for a stroll.”

Zhang, 89, is the mother of Wang Nan, who was a 19-year-old student at Beijing’s Yuetan High School when he was shot dead by martial law troops in the wee hours of June 4 at an intersection north of the Great Hall of the People, according to a record of victims curated by the non-government group, Human Rights in China. The bullet entered the left side of his forehead and came out behind his left ear, leaving a bullet hole at the back of the motorcycle helmet he was wearing.

[...]

Troops buried Wang Nan’s body with others in a shallow grave west of Tiananmen Gate but heavy rains washed the soil away a few days later. His body was taken to a hospital morgue and was initially mistaken as that of a soldier as he’d recently returned from military training and was wearing an old military uniform. His family was only able to recover his body days later, and his cremated remains were interred at Wanan Cemetery.

[...]

Banning the Tiananmen mothers from performing their annual post-funerary rites is exceptionally cruel, [said] a Beijing dissident identifying only by his surname Wu ...

“Their loved ones were shot dead for no reason, but at least they were still able to mourn them,” he said. “It has been over 30 years, and now even their right to go to the cemetery has been stripped away. This is all so sudden.”

[Edit to insert archived link.]

Archived

Solomon Islands’ newly elected Prime Minister Matthew Wale said on June 3 he would be “reviewing” a secretive 2022 security pact with Beijing, which rattled Canberra and Washington by opening the door to Chinese forces in the South Pacific.

Asked about that pact alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Solomons leader – who was elected in May – said he had been “praying and fasting” about the Chinese security deal.

“We are going to be reviewing as we are reviewing other security agreements that we have with many other countries,” he said.

[...]

Australia and the United States have been sharply critical of the deal over concerns it could allow a permanent Chinese navy presence in the South Pacific.

It was signed under one of Wale’s predecessors, Manasseh Sogavare, who was seen as Beijing’s staunchest ally in the South Pacific.

Wale said the deal contained a non-disclosure agreement and he had not seen it until just before his visit to Australia.

“I have had to remove certain people from key positions. I have not been afforded a copy, even, of that agreement, until a day before I left, so I have not had a good look at it,” he told a news conference in Canberra.

[...]

Australia is the largest aid donor to the country of 800,000 people that sits 2,000km to its north-east and historically provided police support during crises.

After the Solomons switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019 and signed the security pact, relations with Canberra and Washington deteriorated.

[...]

[Australian PM] Albanese said on June 3 the two countries would begin work on a “comprehensive” new treaty as well as deepen ties in policing, with Australia seeking to be the top security partner for the Pacific.

The treaty will be “underpinned by mutual trust, respect, and open dialogue”, Albanese added.

[...]

Australia’s offer to fund the expansion of the Solomons’ own police force had stalled under the previous Solomon Islands government, which allowed Chinese police to enter villages to collect household and biometric data.

Wale also said he was in discussions with Australia and the United States over financing for critical infrastructure such as ports.

[...]

Former Solomon Islands prime minister Sogavare had rejected US offers of infrastructure grants, instead opting to partner with Chinese state companies.

Australia has sought to bind South Pacific countries closer by striking treaties with a string of small but strategically located island states, Tuvalu, Nauru and Papua New Guinea, offering significant economic support in return for curbs on Chinese security ties.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54131639

Archived

Days before the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, several relatives of victims of the crackdown learned they would be forbidden this year from visiting their graves.

[...]

Members of the Tiananmen Mothers group that represents the families said they received notice from the Beijing Municipal Security Bureau that for the first time in more than 30 years, they will not be permitted on the premises of Wanan Cemetery, the final resting place of many of the victims, nor would they be allowed to hold their annual post-funerary rites ceremonies.

“They won’t let us go to Wanan Cemetery now, nor will they let us read sacrificial texts or eulogies,” Zhang Xianling, a member of Tiananmen Mothers [said].

“These actions, which used to be routine, are no longer permitted. Now we aren’t even allowed to go there, which is something that has never happened before.”

[...]

For decades, members of the Tiananmen Mothers group have traveled to Wan’an Cemetery every June 4th under police escort to pay their respects and Zhang had planned to do the same this year, but police have been stationed near her home since May 28, she said.

[...]

“There are two security guards at the community entrance, two police officers downstairs, and two cars—one police car and one civilian police car,” said Zhang. “The precautions are so strict, not to mention phone calls from foreign journalists.”

On Tuesday, the chief of police accompanied the guards, and Zhang laughed at all the attention she was getting, she said.

“So, I told them, ‘Since the chief is here, why don’t you accompany me out to have some fun?,’” she said, with a hint of sarcasm. “So he drove me to the Olympic Forest Park for a stroll.”

Zhang, 89, is the mother of Wang Nan, who was a 19-year-old student at Beijing’s Yuetan High School when he was shot dead by martial law troops in the wee hours of June 4 at an intersection north of the Great Hall of the People, according to a record of victims curated by the non-government group, Human Rights in China. The bullet entered the left side of his forehead and came out behind his left ear, leaving a bullet hole at the back of the motorcycle helmet he was wearing.

[...]

Troops buried Wang Nan’s body with others in a shallow grave west of Tiananmen Gate but heavy rains washed the soil away a few days later. His body was taken to a hospital morgue and was initially mistaken as that of a soldier as he’d recently returned from military training and was wearing an old military uniform. His family was only able to recover his body days later, and his cremated remains were interred at Wanan Cemetery.

[...]

Banning the Tiananmen mothers from performing their annual post-funerary rites is exceptionally cruel, [said] a Beijing dissident identifying only by his surname Wu ...

“Their loved ones were shot dead for no reason, but at least they were still able to mourn them,” he said. “It has been over 30 years, and now even their right to go to the cemetery has been stripped away. This is all so sudden.”

[Edit to insert archived link.]

Archived

Days before the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, several relatives of victims of the crackdown learned they would be forbidden this year from visiting their graves.

[...]

Members of the Tiananmen Mothers group that represents the families said they received notice from the Beijing Municipal Security Bureau that for the first time in more than 30 years, they will not be permitted on the premises of Wanan Cemetery, the final resting place of many of the victims, nor would they be allowed to hold their annual post-funerary rites ceremonies.

“They won’t let us go to Wanan Cemetery now, nor will they let us read sacrificial texts or eulogies,” Zhang Xianling, a member of Tiananmen Mothers [said].

“These actions, which used to be routine, are no longer permitted. Now we aren’t even allowed to go there, which is something that has never happened before.”

[...]

For decades, members of the Tiananmen Mothers group have traveled to Wan’an Cemetery every June 4th under police escort to pay their respects and Zhang had planned to do the same this year, but police have been stationed near her home since May 28, she said.

[...]

“There are two security guards at the community entrance, two police officers downstairs, and two cars—one police car and one civilian police car,” said Zhang. “The precautions are so strict, not to mention phone calls from foreign journalists.”

On Tuesday, the chief of police accompanied the guards, and Zhang laughed at all the attention she was getting, she said.

“So, I told them, ‘Since the chief is here, why don’t you accompany me out to have some fun?,’” she said, with a hint of sarcasm. “So he drove me to the Olympic Forest Park for a stroll.”

Zhang, 89, is the mother of Wang Nan, who was a 19-year-old student at Beijing’s Yuetan High School when he was shot dead by martial law troops in the wee hours of June 4 at an intersection north of the Great Hall of the People, according to a record of victims curated by the non-government group, Human Rights in China. The bullet entered the left side of his forehead and came out behind his left ear, leaving a bullet hole at the back of the motorcycle helmet he was wearing.

[...]

Troops buried Wang Nan’s body with others in a shallow grave west of Tiananmen Gate but heavy rains washed the soil away a few days later. His body was taken to a hospital morgue and was initially mistaken as that of a soldier as he’d recently returned from military training and was wearing an old military uniform. His family was only able to recover his body days later, and his cremated remains were interred at Wanan Cemetery.

[...]

Banning the Tiananmen mothers from performing their annual post-funerary rites is exceptionally cruel, [said] a Beijing dissident identifying only by his surname Wu ...

“Their loved ones were shot dead for no reason, but at least they were still able to mourn them,” he said. “It has been over 30 years, and now even their right to go to the cemetery has been stripped away. This is all so sudden.”

[Edit to insert archived link.]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54103224

Archived

• Closing arguments have been heard in the trial of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists who organised a vigil to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

• Advocates say the trial is part of a crackdown by Beijing on long-enjoyed freedoms in Hong Kong. What's next?

• Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung face up to 10 years in jail if convicted of "incitement to subversion".

[...]

A lone man faces down a line of tanks: known only as 'Tank Man', his bravery during the Tiananmen Square massacre has been remembered at vigils in Hong Kong for decades.

That is until Beijing cracked down on events held on June 4, the anniversary of the massacre.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong's High Court began hearing closing arguments in the case of two democracy activists, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, charged with inciting subversion for organising a candlelight vigil to remember Tiananmen Square.

[...]

Experts warn it's a sign of China's increasingly hardline stance and are concerned that the world is forgetting about human rights in Hong Kong.

[...]

No-one knows what happened to 'Tank Man' or his name.

On June 4, 1989, months of pro-democracy and freedom protests came to a head in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Under leader Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ordered an estimated 180,000 troops and police to enter with tanks and armoured vehicles.

[...]

Nearly 40 years later, the reverberations from that event are still being felt, as the Chinese government continues to stifle mention of the massacre and has cracked down on people in Hong Kong who attended events to remember it.

[...]

Lee and Chow, two former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, have pleaded not guilty to "incitement to subversion" after organising vigils on the massacre anniversary.

If convicted, they face up to 10 years in jail.

A third defendant, 74-year-old Albert Ho, a former lawyer, pleaded guilty in January.

When the British handed back Hong Kong to China in 1997, Beijing promised that the "capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years", under what's called the Basic Law, the document that forms the basis of Hong Kong's constitution.

But, less than 30 years in, human rights and legal advocates have become increasingly concerned about Beijing's crackdown on freedom of expression and approach to human rights in Hong Kong.

[...]

Andrew Witheford, from Amnesty International Australia, told the ABC that a national security law brought in in 2020 has been a key instrument for China to essentially undermine the safeguards and undertakings that were given in the Hong Kong Basic Law.

[...]

While mainland China quickly quashed any mention of the Tiananmen Square massacre, vigils have been held in Hong Kong on June 4 since 1990, with hundreds of thousands of people participating.

"In 2020, on the pretext of COVID, the vigils were banned by the government and, since then, anyone turning up on June 4 has been arrested and subject to charges under the national security law," Mr Witheford said.

[...]

"The Chinese government has not only refused to reckon with past wrongs — it is trying to erase them," [Human Rights Watch Asia director Elaine Pearson ] said.

[...]

In her closing submission to the High Court, Chow, a barrister who represented herself, argued that the "real core issue is whether the law truly forbids us from pursuing a democratic transition and defends the Communist Party's perpetual rule".

"In the face of the government's abuse of power and arbitrary killings, does the law only allow us to swallow and wallow in our discontent but not to demand an end to such a tyranny?" she said.

[...]

[Edit: Added 'China' to the title for clarity.]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54103224

Archived

• Closing arguments have been heard in the trial of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists who organised a vigil to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

• Advocates say the trial is part of a crackdown by Beijing on long-enjoyed freedoms in Hong Kong. What's next?

• Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung face up to 10 years in jail if convicted of "incitement to subversion".

[...]

A lone man faces down a line of tanks: known only as 'Tank Man', his bravery during the Tiananmen Square massacre has been remembered at vigils in Hong Kong for decades.

That is until Beijing cracked down on events held on June 4, the anniversary of the massacre.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong's High Court began hearing closing arguments in the case of two democracy activists, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, charged with inciting subversion for organising a candlelight vigil to remember Tiananmen Square.

[...]

Experts warn it's a sign of China's increasingly hardline stance and are concerned that the world is forgetting about human rights in Hong Kong.

[...]

No-one knows what happened to 'Tank Man' or his name.

On June 4, 1989, months of pro-democracy and freedom protests came to a head in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Under leader Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ordered an estimated 180,000 troops and police to enter with tanks and armoured vehicles.

[...]

Nearly 40 years later, the reverberations from that event are still being felt, as the Chinese government continues to stifle mention of the massacre and has cracked down on people in Hong Kong who attended events to remember it.

[...]

Lee and Chow, two former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, have pleaded not guilty to "incitement to subversion" after organising vigils on the massacre anniversary.

If convicted, they face up to 10 years in jail.

A third defendant, 74-year-old Albert Ho, a former lawyer, pleaded guilty in January.

When the British handed back Hong Kong to China in 1997, Beijing promised that the "capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years", under what's called the Basic Law, the document that forms the basis of Hong Kong's constitution.

But, less than 30 years in, human rights and legal advocates have become increasingly concerned about Beijing's crackdown on freedom of expression and approach to human rights in Hong Kong.

[...]

Andrew Witheford, from Amnesty International Australia, told the ABC that a national security law brought in in 2020 has been a key instrument for China to essentially undermine the safeguards and undertakings that were given in the Hong Kong Basic Law.

[...]

While mainland China quickly quashed any mention of the Tiananmen Square massacre, vigils have been held in Hong Kong on June 4 since 1990, with hundreds of thousands of people participating.

"In 2020, on the pretext of COVID, the vigils were banned by the government and, since then, anyone turning up on June 4 has been arrested and subject to charges under the national security law," Mr Witheford said.

[...]

"The Chinese government has not only refused to reckon with past wrongs — it is trying to erase them," [Human Rights Watch Asia director Elaine Pearson ] said.

[...]

In her closing submission to the High Court, Chow, a barrister who represented herself, argued that the "real core issue is whether the law truly forbids us from pursuing a democratic transition and defends the Communist Party's perpetual rule".

"In the face of the government's abuse of power and arbitrary killings, does the law only allow us to swallow and wallow in our discontent but not to demand an end to such a tyranny?" she said.

[...]

[Edit: Added 'China' to the title for clarity.]

Archived

• Closing arguments have been heard in the trial of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists who organised a vigil to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

• Advocates say the trial is part of a crackdown by Beijing on long-enjoyed freedoms in Hong Kong. What's next?

• Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung face up to 10 years in jail if convicted of "incitement to subversion".

[...]

A lone man faces down a line of tanks: known only as 'Tank Man', his bravery during the Tiananmen Square massacre has been remembered at vigils in Hong Kong for decades.

That is until Beijing cracked down on events held on June 4, the anniversary of the massacre.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong's High Court began hearing closing arguments in the case of two democracy activists, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, charged with inciting subversion for organising a candlelight vigil to remember Tiananmen Square.

[...]

Experts warn it's a sign of China's increasingly hardline stance and are concerned that the world is forgetting about human rights in Hong Kong.

[...]

No-one knows what happened to 'Tank Man' or his name.

On June 4, 1989, months of pro-democracy and freedom protests came to a head in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Under leader Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ordered an estimated 180,000 troops and police to enter with tanks and armoured vehicles.

[...]

Nearly 40 years later, the reverberations from that event are still being felt, as the Chinese government continues to stifle mention of the massacre and has cracked down on people in Hong Kong who attended events to remember it.

[...]

Lee and Chow, two former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, have pleaded not guilty to "incitement to subversion" after organising vigils on the massacre anniversary.

If convicted, they face up to 10 years in jail.

A third defendant, 74-year-old Albert Ho, a former lawyer, pleaded guilty in January.

When the British handed back Hong Kong to China in 1997, Beijing promised that the "capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years", under what's called the Basic Law, the document that forms the basis of Hong Kong's constitution.

But, less than 30 years in, human rights and legal advocates have become increasingly concerned about Beijing's crackdown on freedom of expression and approach to human rights in Hong Kong.

[...]

Andrew Witheford, from Amnesty International Australia, told the ABC that a national security law brought in in 2020 has been a key instrument for China to essentially undermine the safeguards and undertakings that were given in the Hong Kong Basic Law.

[...]

While mainland China quickly quashed any mention of the Tiananmen Square massacre, vigils have been held in Hong Kong on June 4 since 1990, with hundreds of thousands of people participating.

"In 2020, on the pretext of COVID, the vigils were banned by the government and, since then, anyone turning up on June 4 has been arrested and subject to charges under the national security law," Mr Witheford said.

[...]

"The Chinese government has not only refused to reckon with past wrongs — it is trying to erase them," [Human Rights Watch Asia director Elaine Pearson ] said.

[...]

In her closing submission to the High Court, Chow, a barrister who represented herself, argued that the "real core issue is whether the law truly forbids us from pursuing a democratic transition and defends the Communist Party's perpetual rule".

"In the face of the government's abuse of power and arbitrary killings, does the law only allow us to swallow and wallow in our discontent but not to demand an end to such a tyranny?" she said.

[...]

[Edit: Added 'China' to the title for clarity.]