Hong Kong the focal point of Chinese dissent ahead of Tiananmen Square anniversary
Updated
Twenty-five years ago, on June 3, 1989, China's
People's Liberation Army marched on its own people, guns blazing, to
retake Tiananmen Square from the students.
Protesters had been People's Liberation Army marched on its own people, guns blazing, to
retake Tiananmen Square from the students.
calling for greater openness, democracy and reform for months and their
numbers had swelled into a mass movement that, by then, included the
general public.
It is not known how many people were killed after
the troops opened fire, but many who died were ordinary citizens in the
streets to the west of the square, going up against armoured personnel
carriers mounted with machine guns.
Protesters built barricades to
try and stop the army from reaching the students but they were never
going to be a match for heavy weapons.
It is also not known how many soldiers were killed by angry mobs.
This
dark and bloody episode was the climax of a political struggle inside
the Communist Party won by the hardliners. Economic reform: yes –
political reform: no.
Tiananmen Square anniversary
You would expect that the 25th anniversary of such an
upheaval would be marked by large spreads in Chinese press with photos
and analysis, that the party-controlled media in China would be busily
churning out the government line that the demonstrators were trying to
overthrow the government, that they had been infiltrated by violent
criminals and that, for the good of the country, order had to be
restored to the Chinese capital.
But instead this anniversary will be marked on mainland China by an enormous void. Nothing.
Decades
ago the party decided that the best way to deal with this painful
history – hurt, death and division following an attack on unarmed
civilians that its own leaders ordered – was to simply pretend that it
did not happen.
So now unlike Tibet, unlike Xinjiang, unlike
Taiwan, unlike recent regional tensions, unlike the death penalty,
unlike pretty much any other sensitive issue you can come up with, the
Government does not put its line on the Tiananmen crackdown.
It simply says nothing and orders the Chinese media to do the same.
In
addition, the entire area in and around Tiananmen is crawling with
agents, many in plain clothes. These days if you were to even attempt to
pull out a banner on any part of the square you would be swamped by
security within seconds.
Hong Kong protests an act of defiance
In Hong Kong it is a different story.Some
say that the former British colony is slowly seeing freedom eroded,
especially when it comes to the press. Journalists and editors seen as
too critical of mainland China have been sacked and some even brutally
bashed.
Yet, when it comes to remembering Tiananmen Square on the 3rd and 4th of June 1989, it seems Hong Kong will not give in.
"We
will never forget the Tiananmen massacre, because until now there's
been no justice," one young woman told the ABC as she marched through
central Hong Kong.
"I think this is related to how we fight for democracy today," a young man said.
A
fellow protestor, also in her 20s added: "It’s become more and more
important. As we are in Hong Kong, we have the only way to help the
people in China to speak out, to speak for them."
If government
officials had hoped that the years would dim the enthusiasm of Hong Kong
residents to protest over Tiananmen, they have been proven remarkably
wrong.
Every year on this anniversary there are a series of
demonstrations. The most powerful is the candlelight vigil on the night
of the 4th.
Hundreds of thousands of people attend this event and
a huge proportion of them were not even born when what has become known
as the Tiananmen Square massacre took place.
"They are telling
Beijing that they are not recognising its efforts to turn back the
clock; to reimpose a kind of authoritarian rule on Chinese people," said
Willy Lam, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Perry Link
from the University of California, Riverside added: "For Hong Kong, the
whole June 4th issue has become not just about the June 4th massacre,
it's become the symbol for Hong Kong's political status."
For many
in Hong Kong protesting over Tiananmen 1989 is more than righting a
wrong, more than calling for an admission of guilt by the party, more
than sticking up for the weak who faced down an army. It is also way of
defending Hong Kong's liberties in general.
China cracks down on remembrance
Ina climate when Beijing is able to scare South Africa into not inviting
the Dalai Lama to Nelson Mandela’s funeral or to intimidate countries
like Australia and even Norway into shunning the Tibetan spiritual
leader, the Hong Kong protests this week are a remarkable act of
defiance by people who are these days, after all, Chinese citizens.
This is a mass message to Beijing regarding the value that many in Hong Kong still place on liberty.
Meanwhile, back in the Chinese capital, they are rounding up those seen as trouble makers.
Here are just a few examples:
- 70-year-old freelance journalist Gao Yu was taken away along with two family members.
- Human rights lawyer lawyer Pu Zhiqiang arrested with Chinese censors blocking any reference to him or his work on social media.
- A
Chinese journalist working as a researcher for the Japanese newspaper
Nikkei has also been detained in connection with the crime of
interviewing Pu Zhiqiang.
Even
being an Australian citizen has not stopped him from being dragged
away. Some officials see ethnic Chinese with the international passports
as traitors anyway.
Writer Ma Jian wrote in the preface for the Hong Kong edition of Beijing Zhiwuren:
"AfterClearly the feeling amongst
the June 4th massacre, the Communist Party immediately tried to cut off
its memory, remembering the past became a thought crime and the Chinese
were brainwashed once again; people’s spiritual reflection was
prematurely extinguished. But the character of Dai Wei, even in the
prison of his body, continues to struggle against the oppressors to
defend his right to memory, at a time when political terror and the
overwhelming desire for material well-being have transformed human
beings into vegetables, Dai Wei, like sparks of lightning in the rain,
continues to vibrate within his body. In a society of power relations,
every human being is 'weak' and unable to think, but when he fixes his
own experience in memory he becomes spiritually strong. Memory endows
human beings with the freedom of the soul, and remembering makes human
life everlasting."
China's most powerful is that the time has not yet come to remember
because there are still those alive whose reputations must be preserved.
Deng Xiaoping is hailed as the leader who opened China to the world following the calamity of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.
This
of course is absolutely true and, if not for the Tiananmen killings
that happened with him in charge of the country, he would probably be
seen as one of the world's great heroes. He died in February 1997.
As
premier, Li Peng was officially number 2 leader in 1989. Of all those
involved he is most hated for sending in the troops. For this he earned
the nickname "The Butcher of Beijing". He is still alive.
Jiang Zemin benefited indirectly as he was catapulted from nowhere into the top leadership following the crackdown.
He is around in the background and, though very old, is still seen as pulling factional strings within the Communist Party.
Perhaps
most significantly though, China's current leaders cannot be blamed for
any of this. What's more, president Xi Jinping is the son of Xi
Zhongxun, who was in the leadership group of the time.
Present
Xi's father is thought to have opposed the decision to send in the
troops. This could mean that eventually he might support some sort of
reconciliation over June 4, 1989 but this could be a long way off yet.
Yet
Perry Link does not think so. He told the ABC: "I think the only way
open discussion of the Tiananmen massacre will happen is if the
one-party dictatorship ends."
In the meantime though, they will
just be hoping to get through this week without too much embarrassment
and without too many people in China even knowing that the anniversary
has come and gone.
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