Hong Kong marks Tiananmen crackdown anniversary

The 27th anniversary of the violent crackdown on China's democracy movement on June 4th, 1989, passed, as usual, without any public displays of commemoration in the capital Beijing at the weekend.

The suppression by the Chinese army of the democracy movement, in which hundreds, maybe thousands, died after the Communist leadership sent in tanks to break up the protests, is officially considered a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" necessary measure to ensure stability in China.

On Tiananmen Square, there was nothing to differentiate from any other weekend, as tourists shuffled around, and these days it’s hard to tell the plain-clothes security agents who are here for the commemoration or those who are here all the time.

Ding Zilin, the 79-year-old philosophy lecturer who is one of the founders of Tiananmen Mothers and whose 17-year-old son Jiang Jielian was among the hundreds killed on that day, was silenced days before the anniversary of her son’s death.

The Chinese government has never apologised or even allowed any kind of meaningful assessment of what happened on June 4th, 1989. It remains a taboo in China and President Xi Jinping has overseen a long-running crackdown on dissent, and Ms Ding, whose husband and daughter have also died in recent months, has been caught up in the campaign.

In a statement from Human Rights Watch in China in the run-up to the anniversary, Ms Ding said: “For 27 years, we, victims’ families, have rationally maintained our three appeals: truth, accountability and compensation, in an effort to seek a just resolution to the miscarriage of justice of June 4th.”

“But the government has ignored us, pretending that the June 4th massacre that shocked the whole world never happened in China, and refusing to respond to our appeals, while our fellow countrymen gradually lose the memory of the event.”

There are small gestures however. On social media, people have been posting an anti-Nazi propaganda movie from the 1970s, called Walter Defends Sarajevo in which a group of young people are killed by the Nazis, and then their parents risk death to collect the bodies. The message is clear.

And there is input on what happened from overseas.

The China Change website ran an interview with Wu Renhua, who witnessed People’s Liberation Army tanks charging into a file of students at a large intersection at Liubukou, killing 11 and injuring many.

However, in China the gradual loss of memory that Ms Ding describes is very much in evidence, as the “millennials” born in the 1990s seem increasingly bored with the ramifications of what happened.

Internet speed, which is normally badly disrupted by the memorial, this year seemed relatively normal. At this point, the Great Firewall of China, as the government’s system of internet controls, has become known, has become proficient at stopping unwanted traffic. There are now so many banned terms that it is pointless trying to access them.

Hong Kong too is dealing with the millennials and their differing view of events on June 4th. However, in Hong Kong, many of the young people are keen to shift attention away from democracy for China, and focus instead on greater self-determination for Hong Kong with the "localist" movement.

A crowd put at around 125,000 poured on to six football fields in Victoria Park, and they surrounded the Goddess of Democracy statue, which looked over Tiananmen Square during the gathering of reformers in 1989.

“The spirit of those who sacrifice for democracy will thrive forever,” the banners said.

However, this vigil was briefly disrupted by protesters seeking autonomy for Hong Kong, running through the crowds with banners saying “Declare Independence”, as student leaders feel the best way to counter Beijing’s growing influence is to seek independence.

Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule after 156 years of British rule in 1997, but the democracy movement is torn about how to proceed in calling for more democracy after the failure of the Occupy movement seeking more self-determination in 2014.

Meanwhile, the newly elected president of self-ruled Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, has urged China not to fear democracy. At an event in the island’s legislature, Ms Tsai was joined by the democracy leader Wu’er Kaixi, who survived the Tiananmen crackdown and has not been allowed back into China since.

Ms Tsai said in a Facebook post that the lives of people in China have improved with economic growth, but that China would earn more respect if it granted its people more rights.

“Only the ruling party has the capacity to resolve the past pain of the Chinese people,” she wrote. “Hopefully one day both sides will converge their views on democracy and human rights.”