Remembering June 4th "Tell the whole world" they said

What do you know about what happened on the streets of Beijing and Tiananmen Square on June the 4th 1989? Official Chinese statements claim “a heroic intervention by the People’s Liberation Army to save China from ‘counter-revolutionaries.” However if you are to respond to the aforementioned question with “unarmed civilians, and non-violent protesters and demonstrators were quelled by the Chinese Army who shot and killed their own people through a series of unprovoked attacks” then you would know more than most Chinese citizens under the age of twenty.

So there we have it twenty years since those tragic moments in Chinese history and many refuse to forget. Not because they want to remember what their government and armed forces were capable of doing, and of horrific and evil acts they were prepared to do; but because of the efforts by the Chinese hegemony to rewrite history escape accountability and detriment and to whitewash the truth. To this day the amount of people killed remains a mystery. Of course we have been here before; neo-nazis, and supremacists denying the Jewish holocaust, or Turkey denying the Armenian genocide.

www.protectthehuman.com/tiananmen is a global petition calling for a full public inquiry on the events of May 4th 1989; a quest for the Chinese government to reveal the facts which I urge you to sign up now on the above link. In Kate Adie’s initial BBC report, she had stated that in the midst of the attacks, people were remonstrating “tell the whole world” This she did, but twenty years on China refuses to tell its citizens. Censorship is at the forefront of the agenda in China today. Just as it was when they held the Olympics, any dissident voice, any telling of the truth is swiftly dealt with. References to the pro-democracy movement are nowhere to be found in the media or on the internet. On China’s Google search engine, google.cn, the gates of information on typed phrases “4th June”, or “Tiananmen square” or even “Charter 08” (a charter issued by dissidents for greater democracy in China) are closed with the sign “this search does not comply with laws, regulation and policies”. The same result will occur on the countries popular search engine Baidu. An extensive “information blackout” has been carried out ahead of the anniversary ,with Flicker, Twitter, Hotmail, emailing services, MSNSpaces, and Youtube amongst those on the information highway with restricted access to its Chinese citizens. In broadcasting, BBC’s world channels, and news channels from Hong Kong have also been met with static black images.



But this Orwellian control over its people extends beyond the technological. In 2004, Shi Tao, a prominent journalist, was imprisoned for ten years for sending an e mail about the Tiananmen Square anniversary, and Huang Qi a cyber dissident, having campaigned for the June 89 victims to be recognised, has been held in Chengdu without trial since June 2008. Yesterday Amnesty International issued a press release detailing the increased harassment against activists, journalists and human rights lawyers; in truth anyone willing to remember, or recollect. One particular activist, Tian Yongde, an internet writer has been missing since Tuesday having been taken away by the police whilst visiting his mother. “Cutting off communication and preventing movement will not stop activists from fighting for their rights…” Roseann Rife says in the statement. This is precisely what the protestors in Tiananmen Square were protesting for; free speech.

Their calls for elections and free speech were intimately connected to economic dissent. This is why contrary to the common perception of a strictly student demonstration , the protestors were in truth, made from a wide range of Chinese society ; workers ads well as teachers and students were involved. They were responding to a wave of economic reforms, which included the lowering of wages, the raising of prices, and the lack of employment stability that had left many people unemployed.

Today China is a very different place from what it was pre 1989. It has become an economic global super power; bringing more affluence to its citizen’s than under Communist rule. “No country offered more lucrative deals than China: low taxes and tariffs, corruptible officials, and most of all, a plentiful low-wage workforce that, for many years, would be unwilling to risk demanding decent salaries or the most basic workplace protections, for the fear of violent reprisals.” , documents Naomi Klien in her book the Shock Doctrine. Although bicycles have been replaced by Bentley’s, China’s attitudes to freedom of speech have remained the same.

On Tuesday the 3rd June, I attended Amnesty International’s human rights centre, where survivors and witnesses discussed the events and its aftermath.Attending the event was Kate Adie, brave and experienced BBC journalist, who reported on the massacre in 89. Wu Yenhua, professor who was actively involved in the pro-democracy movement now exiled in the US. Dr Wang Rongfen, who signed an open letter 21 April 1989, she also partook in all the demonstrations and hunger strikes. She was imprisoned for 13 years prior to the pro democracy protests, for criticising Mao Zedong in an open letter. Shao Jiang was jailed for 18 months following the crackdown, having organised non-violent protests in Beijing, he is now living in the UK and blogs for Amnesty International. Finally Xia Ze, the UK director for Friends of Tiananmen Mothers an organisation made up of human rights activists and bereaved relatives campaigning for justice. Her cousin was shot dead in the crackdown. Hearing their personal accounts and what they perceive as an injustice that has yet to be recognised even in this day, is enough to warrant remembrance for those ‘forgotten victims.’ (notes on the event will be published later alternatively you can either go to the blog: To strive, to seek, to find or this ITN You Tube page )

Kate Adie’s documentary on BBC 2 and her article in the Daily Mail, shed’s light on why China still has “blood on its hands”. In her article, she meets Mrs Zhang, founder of Tiananmen Mothers, (relatives and friends of the victims promoting a change in the government's position over the suppression of the Tiananmen Square.) whose son; Wang Nan was killed at the age of 19 in the crackdown. His crime? Taking photographs within the square. Even after so many years of the occurrence of this appalling act of humanity, Mrs Zhang is subjected to house arrest, each time the anniversary of her son’s death comes around.

Professor Diane Wei Liang, a former 1989 protestor who went to the US, but returned to Beijing to teach students not old enough to know of this dark event, offers an opposing view. In Prospect magazine she talks of economic prosperity in relation to her student’s and the relevancy of them knowing what went happened so many years ago . “Their China is in many ways the China that we wanted at Tiananmen: people living freer and happier lives.” She goes on to say “…But we should also recognise that that expecting China to collectively atone for the sins of Tiananmen Square is neither realistic, desirable nor necessary” Tell that to the relatives of those that lost their lost their lives. Tell that to the survivors. Tell that to those who are continually harassed, put in jail or exiled from their homeland for trying to speak out. Democracy and free speech has a thin veil in China today.

Related Links:

Sign the 'Protect the Human' Petition (China)

Ian Buruma in Prospect Magazine

To strive to seek to find

Amnesty Press Release

Charter 08

The Guardian article

Kate Adie in Daily Mail

Shao Jiang