An annual vigil was held in Taipei yesterday to remember the victims of a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators by Chinese authorities in Beijing 34 years ago on June 4.
The vigil, which began at 6:40pm at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, included remarks by Taiwanese and foreign human rights campaigners, exiled Hong Kong protesters and politicians, and Taiwanese lawmakers.
Wu Renhua (吳仁華), a Chinese academic and participant in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989, opened the proceedings by lamenting the lack of a commemoration of the crackdown in the Chinese-speaking world outside of Taiwan.
Photo: AFP
He said that pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong had previously held large-scale vigils in Victoria Park every year on June 4 to remember the victims of Tiananmen Square, but Hong Kong authorities banned the event in 2020, citing COVID-19 concerns.
Since then, they have closed the venue to demonstrators in the name of epidemic prevention, and more recently to prevent “illegal activities” under its National Security Law.
Taiwan is the sole country in the Chinese-speaking world that can publicly commemorate the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Wu said.
As a witness and survivor of the massacre, Wu said he has participated in the annual vigil in Taipei for five consecutive years, and more people seem to be joining the annual memorial.
Although Taiwan has no official diplomatic relations with China, it should commemorate the 1989 incident, because as a democratic country, it should demonstrate its respect for universal human rights, he said.
“Human rights are without borders,” he said.
New School for Democracy chairman Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元), who organized the vigil, said that the Tiananmen Square Massacre is something that Taiwan definitely needs to commemorate every year.
The same Chinese Communist Party regime that brutally cracked down on its people in 1989 is now sending warplanes and ships into Taiwan’s vicinity every day, he said.
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