20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre

Background

In the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, thousands of students and protests had gathered in Tiananmen Square, when troops opened fire. An unknown number of people were wounded or died in the massacre. As the People's Republic of China has publicly embraced the one country, two systems model of governance for Hong Kong, the annual 4 June observance which has become a tradition since 1989 has continued after the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China. It is the only place on Chinese soil where the event is openly commemorated in any way and on any scale.

The 20th anniversary was commemorated in the backdrop of the release of Zhao Ziyangs memoirs to the public on 14 May 2009, entitled Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang. That same day, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang spoke in the Legislative Council on a motion demanding vindication of the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement, Tsang said he believed 'Hong Kong people will make an objective assessment of the nation's development', after noting China's economic development. His claim that he was echoing the sentiments of Hong Kong people provoked a furor, for which he quickly apologized.

Denied entry to Hong Kong

The BBC's correspondent reported that the local authorities did stop some of the Tiananmen exiles coming into Hong Kong to please Beijing. Jens Galschiøt, who sculptured the Pillar of Shame now located on the campus of Hong Kong University, was not allowed into Hong Kong.Xiang Xiaoji, a former student leader of the '89 protests, was also refused entry. The Hong Kong Immigration Department denied keeping a blacklist, but admitted to a 'surveillance list'. Wuerkaixi, a student activist, was also barred from entering Macau. Pro-democracy legislator Lee Cheuk-yan said it was crucial that the city continued to mark the events of 20 years ago as it was the only place on Chinese soil that can commemorate the event.

Mainland China

The 1989 protest is still considered a counter-revolutionary riot by the Chinese Communist Party, and remains taboo.

The New York Times reported that the Communist Party established a top-level committee charged with ensuring social stability during the period of sensitive anniversaries. The committee is rumoured to be led by Xi Jinping and nicknamed "6521 Project" – supposedly in reference to the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, and the 10th anniversary of the banning of the Falun Gong. The project established branches at every level of government, and was carried out in part through increased surveillance of potential dissidents. Among those who had been arrested were several human rights lawyers who had signed Charter 08 – including Tang Jitian, Lan Xuezhi, and Pu Zhiqiang; Jiang Tianyong, Li Heping, Li Xiongbing and Li Fangping were put under surveillance. The Standard reported a huge security presence in Tiananmen, and all around Beijing, as the authorities remained determined to prevent any commemoration of the mass slaughter twenty years previously. Simpson said that the People's Armed Police and Public Security Bureau were backed up by thousands more uniformed police and para-military officers in the square; armoured divisions of the People's Liberation Army remained on standby inside nearby garrisons. The BBC reported that police sealed off Tiananmen Square in Beijing for the anniversary, with foreign journalists barred from the area. At the diplomatic level, China rejected a US call to investigate the massacre, and accused Washington of "political prejudices".

Internet

Coinciding with the twentieth anniversary, the PRC government ordered Internet portals, fora and discussion groups to shut down their servers for maintenance between 3 and 6 June. Twitter and Microsoft Hotmail were blocked across the mainland two days before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown; others said Microsoft's Windows Live and Flickr were also inaccessible.

The Guardian reported that in excess of 300 Chinese sites had "posted increasingly blasé maintenance messages on the anniversary". A number of websites, such as Fanfou and WordKu.com, made a veiled protest at state censorship by referring to the date sarcastically as "Chinese Internet Maintenance Day". Chinese users of Twitter, Hotmail and Flickr, among others, reported a widespread service disruptions the day before the shut-downs.

Legislative Council motion

The motion to vindicate the 1989 Tiananmen protesters failed as they did not secure a majority in both functional and geographical constituencies. Twenty-three votes were cast in favour. The nine DAB legislators, three from the FTU, Philip Wong, Lau Wong-fat, Chim Pui-chung and Regina Ip voted against. There were eleven abstentions and nine were absent. No government officials attended the debate; none of the legislators from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, spoke on the motion before casting their opposing vote. However, a minor breakthrough occurred when independent medical representative Leung Ka-lau voted to support the motion; that another non-affiliated lawmaker Paul Chan Mo-po (accountancy) joined the democrats in observing a minute's silence during the debate was also described as a ground-breaking. As a measure of its sensitive nature and notwithstanding a sharp rise in public opinion in favour of an official vindication, the loyalist DAB refused to comment on the protests and massacre; at a Legco House Committee meeting ten days prior to the LegCo debate, Chief Secretary Henry Tang also refused to comment when asked by lawmakers.

March and candlelight vigil

The march which took place on 31 May 2009 followed the traditional route from Victoria Park to Government Offices in Central, led by 20 youngsters born in 1989.Fung, Fanny & Chiu, Austin (1 June 2009). "Thousands mark Tiananmen crackdown". Pro-democratic groups such as the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China said 8,000 people participated; the police estimated 4,700. Organisers said around 5,000 people rallied.

Xiong Yan, a former student leader of the 1989 protest who was jailed and arrested, was able to set foot on Chinese soil for the first time in 17 years to participate in the rally.

At Hong Kong Victoria Park candlelight vigil was followed on 4 June 2009. Organisers estimated its size at 150,000, plus another 50,000 who cannot fit inside the park. This is the largest turnout ever in 20 years. Police put the number at 62,800.

At the vigil, Xiong Yan gave a speech in which he hailed Hong Kong people as "the pride of all Chinese" - for daring to defend freedom; excerpts from the memoirs recorded by late Communist Party secretary general and democracy-movement sympathiser Zhao Ziyang were played, as was a recorded message from Ding Zilin, leader of the Tiananmen Mothers group of bereaved parents. The public jeered when an image of Chief Executive Donald Tsang was shown on giant screens next to that of former hard-line premier Li Peng.

References

References

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25. [[Chim Pui-chung]] from the financial sector said China might have disintegrated like the [[Soviet Union]] had Beijing not taken a hard line. Three other amendments moved by pan-democrats - one demanding the inclusion of the protests and massacre in school history books and another expressing regret about recent remarks on the issue by Donald Tsang - also failed.Yeung, Chris (1 June 2009). "Ignoring June 4 won't make it go away", ''South China Morning Post''.
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