(Taipei) Hundreds of people gathered in Taiwan Tuesday evening to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Chinese government’s crackdown on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and “keep that memory alive.”
“The memories of June 4 will not disappear in the torrent of history and we will continue to work hard to keep this historical memory alive”, for “all those who are attached to Chinese democracy”, wrote on Facebook Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who took office in May.
“Because it reminds us that democracy and freedom are not easy to achieve, we must… respond to autocracy with freedom and confront the rise of authoritarianism with courage,” added the leader, regularly accused of “dangerous separatist” by Beijing.
On June 4, 1989, China sent troops and tanks against pro-democracy and peaceful demonstrators in Beijing’s main central square to end weeks of protests calling for political change.
Hundreds of people, even more than a thousand according to some estimates, were killed.
The subject is particularly sensitive for China’s communist leaders and any mention of the repression is strictly censored in the country. Many young Chinese today are unaware of this part of Chinese history because of this censorship.
In the crowd gathered in Taiwan, Vincent Lee, 46, explained that it was his “way of protecting democracy and freedom in Taiwan against Chinese dictatorship.” “China is becoming more and more authoritarian and Xi Jinping (the Chinese president, Editor’s note) looks like an emperor,” he judged.
China considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces, which it has not yet managed to reunify with its territory since the end of the civil war and the coming to power of the communists in Beijing in 1949.
She accused President Lai Ching-te of pushing the island towards “war” and organized large-scale military maneuvers around Taiwan in May.
Mr. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party defends the sovereignty of Taiwan, which has its own government, army and currency. “A truly respectable country is one where people speak out,” Mr. Lai wrote in his post Tuesday.
In 1989, Beijing claimed to have put an end to “counter-revolutionary riots” in what outside the country was seen as a massacre of innocent people, including many students.
Asked about the 35th anniversary on Monday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Beijing “will continue to oppose the use (of these events) to attack and smear China.”
The European Union called on Chinese authorities to “act to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice”.
In Tiananmen Square, groups of tourists wearing matching neon headwear were seen Tuesday morning posing next to the mausoleum of Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung. The security presence was significant but not unusual.
Access to the largest square in the world, which is lined with numerous official buildings as well as the Forbidden City, is strictly controlled at all times and requires authorization.
In Hong Kong, a former British colony returned to China in 1997, police announced early Wednesday that four people had been arrested.
One of them is a 68-year-old woman arrested for “offenses relating to seditious intent,” an offense under Hong Kong’s new security law passed in March.
The press release specifies that five other people were arrested “for investigation into public order disturbances”, then released shortly after.
Eight people had already been arrested earlier this week in connection with this new law.
Hong Kong was for a long time the only place in China where the commemoration of the massacre of June 4, 1989 was tolerated. The handover agreement guaranteed in principle an extended regime of freedoms in the former colony until 2047.
AFP journalists on Tuesday saw dozens of police officers patrolling Victoria Park, where tens of thousands of people had previously gathered to mourn the dead.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his part declared on Tuesday that the United States stood in “solidarity” with the democracy movement in China and vowed to never forget the repression that took place in Tiananmen Square ago. 35 years.
“As Beijing attempts to erase the memory of June 4, the United States stands in solidarity with those who continue the fight for human rights and individual freedom,” Blinken said in a statement.