Latest news with #TiananmenSquareMassacre
Epoch Times
17 hours ago
- Epoch Times
Hong Kong Arrests 2, Detains 10 Amid Ongoing Crackdown on June 4 Memorials
This year marks the 36th anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre. While public commemorations in Hong Kong have been banned, many citizens continue to honor the event in subtle and varied ways. In Causeway Bay—once the traditional site of June 4 candlelight vigils—police carried out stop-and-search operations, arresting two individuals and detaining 10 others for further investigation.
Japan Forward
4 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Forward
China's Apology for Tiananmen Massacre Still Matters 36 Years On
June 4 marked the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. On that day, the Chinese communist regime used its military forces to suppress students and other supporters of the democracy movement gathered peacefully in Tiananmen Square. Numerous deaths and injuries took place in that public space that marked the heart of Beijing. China's communist government has characterized the protests as a "counter-revolutionary uprising." And it has tried to repress the very memory of the bloodbath by suppressing freedom of speech among the Chinese people. The website of Tiananmen Mothers, a group made up of members of families of the victims, once again in 2025, has called for the truth to be revealed and for those responsible to be held accountable. It calls the event "the most horrific massacre in the world, perpetrated by the government and politicians of the time." Memorial rallies continue to be held annually worldwide. However, they have remained effectively banned in Hong Kong since the Hong Kong National Security Law took effect in 2020. Older family members of the victims are dying off one by one, and it's sad to contemplate their profound despair. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has an inbred compulsion to violate human rights and hide the truth. We cannot condone that. Xi Jinping's administration must make the facts about the Tiananmen Massacre public and apologize to the victims and their families. The Xi administration is now attacking the "America First" ideology of the Donald Trump administration. Specifically, Beijing is pointing to US tariff policies while claiming to act as a defender of the global order and "uphold international fairness and justice." The hypocrisy of the Xi administration's stance is staggering. In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tibet, and Hong Kong, the Xi administration has thoroughly suppressed human rights. China's coercive actions have also intensified in the East and South China Seas. Beijing is aiming to change the status quo by force in those regions to gain maritime dominance and annex Taiwan. In Taipei, Taiwan, the lights at a memorial rally are the shape of "8964" (1989 June 4), the date of the massacre. (©Sankei by Yoshiaki Nishimi) This anniversary of the June 4 tragedy should serve as a reminder to the world that the CCP's inhumane and authoritarian nature remains unchanged from 36 years ago. Especially worrisome is the conciliatory stance that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Cabinet seems inclined to pursue toward China. From appearances, the governments of Japan and China are of one mind in wanting to promote a mutually beneficial strategic relationship. But aren't our leaders being taken in by Beijing's current smile diplomacy? Predictably, Beijing is making overtures towards Tokyo designed to gain China's advantage in its confrontation with the United States. However, a look beyond the capital reveals another truth. Recently, a helicopter took off from a China Coast Guard vessel, violating Japanese airspace around the Senkaku Islands (Ishigaki City). But the Ishiba administration's response was hesitant. As well, we must not forget the blunder made by the Japanese Cabinet in office at the time of the Tiananmen Massacre. That Cabinet parted from other democracies and opposed joint international sanctions after the incident. Tokyo instead argued that it would be inappropriate to force China into international isolation. Since then, China has used its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as leverage to dominate the global market and build up a mammoth military. Japan also bears some responsibility for that. The Ishiba administration should once again call on China to reveal the truth about what really happened in Tiananmen Square. As things stand, it is out of the question for Xi to visit Japan as a state guest. (Read the editorial in Japanese .) Author: Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbun
Epoch Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Candlelight Vigil in San Francisco Commemorates Tiananmen Massacre Victims
On the evening of June 3, hundreds of people gathered at Portsmouth Square in San Francisco to hold a candlelight vigil in memory of the pro-democracy movement that occurred in China 36 years ago. On June 4, 1989, in what is now known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deployed large numbers of troops and tanks to violently suppress students who were participating in pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square. The communist regime subsequently covered up the number of deaths and injuries.
Epoch Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Filmmaker Warns Australia on Importing ‘Communist Culture' Amid Push for Greater China Trade Ties
An award-winning filmmaker once jailed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has warned Australia against pushing hard for more trade opportunities with China without considering the negative consequences. Kay Rubacek is an Australian expat and author based in the New York area, and has spoken extensively on the human rights situation in China. On the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, an interview between Rubacek and ABC Radio Brisbane was released where she urged policymakers to consider the Australia-China trade relationship more holistically. 'We should look at not only importing goods. We're importing students. We're importing dollars that have political ties and expectations to reciprocate back with China. We are also importing a communist culture that we don't understand.' Rubacek said China was a 'very complex society.' 'It has 5,000 years of history, and it has this imposed ruling party that has taken over the entire nation, a one party state, and that is what's controlling the system,' she said. Related Stories 5/14/2025 5/19/2025 'It is not a rule of law, because everything falls under the Chinese Communist Party. There is a Constitution for the nation of China, but it is subject to the CCP.' (From right to left) Kay Rubacek, Chris Chappell, Sean Lin, and moderator Jenny Chang at the Wake Up to CCP Threat seminar in Middletown, N.Y. on Dec. 8, 2022. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times Australia Grapples With China Debate Her comments come after the recent Australian election saw One narrative that has circled for years is that Chinese-Australian voters will vote based on whichever party is more favourable towards ties with Beijing. In response, politicians from both sides of the aisle have limited their own rhetoric, despite well-publicised CCP infiltration efforts. The situation has led defence analyst Michael Shoebridge to warn Australia's public discourse on the matter had now been effectively hemmed in by Beijing's propaganda strategy. 'The issue of foreign interference became politicised for domestic reasons here in Australia, and lost its actual significance as a threat to our democracy,' he told 'Without focusing clearly on the Chinese government in this area of policy, Australian politicians play straight into CCP propagandists' hands, by allowing them to claim anyone who talks about Beijing's foreign interference activities as somehow biased against 1.2 million [ethnic Chinese] Australians.' Rubacek's comments about 'communist culture' also align with deeper issues with CCP indoctrination. 'Under the influence of party culture, people's minds, thoughts, and behaviours have undergone profound distortions. In many areas—such as society, family, education, work, and interpersonal relationships—they have deviated from the normal state of humanity,' according to 2006 Epoch Times editorial series, ' Some of the methods deployed by the CCP include removing content on traditional faiths like Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, and instead, implanting pro-CCP narratives into text books and media, even replacing everyday words with newly coined phrases that reflect communist ideology (akin to 1984's Newspeak). For example, mainland Chinese today will use the phrase 'working unit,' instead of 'company' or 'organisation.' A Life Impacted by Communism Rubacek's great-grandparents escaped Soviet Russia to China in the early 1920s. Her father then escaped communist China to Australia at the age of 14, right before the Cultural Revolution started. Born and raised in Sydney, Rubacek became active in human rights work related to China. In a still image from a video released by NTD, host Kay Rubacek, describes her excitement to see and touch a piece of the real Berlin Wall after learning that pieces of it are on display in public places in New York City on Oct. 12 2021 Oliver Trey/NTD In 2001, in her early 20s, she went to China to join a human rights appeal by Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice rooted in the Buddhist tradition, with moral teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Alarmed by its widespread popularity and independence from the communist regime's control, former CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched a nationwide persecution of the practice in 1999. Since then, Falun Gong practitioners in China have faced mass arrests, torture, forced labor, sexual abuse, and even forced organ harvesting, while globally the CCP leveraged its influence to silence debate on the topic. 'I just could not believe that a young woman would be thrown into a basement prison cell for holding the word 'compassion' in a public place, Tiananmen Square,' Rubacek said. The CCP authorities detained Rubacek for 23 hours before expelling her from China to avoid involving the Australian embassy. Having seen what was happening in China, Rubacek felt that she needed to try and bridge the gap between the cultures. 'What's happened in China, how it's changed under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, what my father lived through, how it's coming to modern day times, and how to help people in Australia and around the world understand that because it is so different to our experience,' she said. Since then, she has continued to work on the cause, producing multiple works, including the documentary Falun Gong practitioners from 12 countries peacefully appeal on Tiananmen Square in 2001 for an end to the persecution and torture of their Chinese counterparts. Rubacek said the U.S. government was now much firmer on the CCP. 'America is waking up to that, and I'm very pleased to see how they are bravely cutting ties, and they are no longer being bullied,' she said. 'It is vitally important that we understand who we are dealing with and what they expect from us and how they use us,' she concluded.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Opinion - When even remembering is a crime: China's Tiananmen Square massacre, 36 years on
An open hand with a bullet wound in the middle probably lies somewhere in the dark security storage of the Sanhe Public Security Bureau. The hand — a painting, not literal rotting flesh — is the artwork of the Gao Brothers titled, 'Memory 1989' or 'Pierced Memory,' a memorial honoring the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre that took place 36 years ago today. Like that piece of art, Gao Zhen, one half of the artist duo, sits locked away in a prison cell in Beijing, awaiting sentencing on charges of 'slandering China's heroes and martyrs.' All for drawing attention through art to what Beijing has been trying to erase from history for nearly four decades — the moment when those who fought for freedom were shot down by state bullets. On June 4, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party answered a generation's call for reform, first with silence, then steel, crushing not just bodies but the very idea of political possibility. What began as a tribute to reformist leader Hu Yaobang's death blossomed into a peaceful student-led movement calling for dialogue: press freedom, transparency, anti-corruption measures, and modest democratic reforms. It became one of the largest acts of civil resistance in modern Chinese history, reverberating across 400 cities. At the heart of it all, more than a million people filled Tiananmen Square, their hunger strikes, banners, and speeches illuminating a fragile hope that the system might bend. Instead, the system broke them. Martial law was declared at midnight. In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, some Chinese leaders feared Tiananmen would leave an indelible blemish on the country's history, a lasting memory of the free world that would exclude China from the global order. The fear of isolation never really materialized. At the time, many Western policymakers believed that market reforms would eventually usher in political liberalization. In the years since, the Chinese Communist Party has been debunking the assumption that capitalism necessarily breeds democracy. It has carved out a space on the global stage to accommodate its 'China model' and infiltrate democratic institutions. Far from being a red line others dare to cross, Tiananmen revealed just how much the world was willing to overlook in exchange for market access and profit. Authoritarian regimes have learned they don't need to come out with tanks and guns blazing to debilitate national movements of resistance. The Chinese Communists do it more 'discreetly' now. Like taking quiet but great measures to suppress creative dissent, a form of speech that is filled with illusion and thus difficult to censor, and powerfully evocative, and thus difficult to sanitize. Sanmu Chan, a performance artist and friend of Gao who has continuously posted on Facebook each day since his friend was detained, has faced massive censorship in Hong Kong. In 2024, he was detained for writing '8964' in the air and miming the act of pouring wine onto the ground to symbolize mourning for those massacred during the Tiananmen Square protests. In Hong Kong, Beijing has deployed legal instruments in place of tanks, replacing open violence with legal warfare. What was once a sanctuary for memory is now a place of fear and enforced silence. The annual June 4 vigil at Victoria Park, once the world's largest public remembrance of Tiananmen, has been outlawed and its organizers imprisoned. From Tehran to Moscow, authoritarian leaders across the globe have increasingly employed vaguely worded laws to erase inconvenient history. In Russia, 'memory laws' ban criticism of the Soviet past. In Bangladesh, the rebranded Digital Security Act continues to jail critics for 'hurting national sentiment.' And in Iran, mourning itself became rebellion: on the anniversary of Mahsa Jina Amini's death, her father was detained to prevent a graveside vigil; families of other slain protesters were arrested under vague charges of 'propaganda against the state.' On the other hand, authoritarian states are keen to dictate what should be remembered. Indonesia's government introduced a proposal to name the country's former dictator, Suharto, a national hero despite his record of anti-communist purges that left more than 500,000 dead. The lesson from Tiananmen hasn't been caution, it's coordination. Mass repression, they've realized, need not isolate a regime; it can consolidate alliances. They saw China suffer no lasting consequences for slaughtering its people and how quickly the world resumed business. Now, they are doubling down: partnering not only in repression, but in its global legitimation, so that the next Tiananmen elicits not outrage but a shrug. From voting down a United Nations debate on the Uyghur genocide to shielding Iran from accountability over its crackdown on women protesters from marshalling authoritarian allies to pass Human Rights Council resolutions that shift focus away from civil liberties to advancing the 'non-interference' doctrine, the world's dictatorial regimes are coordinating to resist democratic norms and deflect any scrutiny of their abuses. With Beijing's shift from authoritarian apprentice to global enabler, autocrats are now proactively offering to enforce one another's repressive techniques. However, behind the projection of strength lies a quieter truth: authoritarians govern with deep paranoia. Authoritarianism lacks the feedback loops that allow it to democratically correct itself in open societies. Without the ability to trust its citizens or to distinguish loyalty with silence, it relies on excessive surveillance to preempt any challenges to its rule, and even then, it's failing. The sudden eruption of the White Paper protests during mainland China's zero-COVID era and the unexpected unfurling of pro-democracy banners in Chengdu show that dissent is still possible, even under extreme restrictions. This overreliance on mass surveillance will blind the Chinese Communist Party to genuine social undercurrents that will disrupt its legitimacy as a ruling party. While the regime refines repression, people refine resistance. There is a limit to what software can suppress — and suppression breeds creativity. When authorities silenced slogans, protesters raised blank signs; when images of state violence were scrubbed from the Internet, diaspora artists, technologists, and archivists reassembled them through AI, immersive installations, and blockchain repositories. While the streets of Hong Kong may now fall silent on June 4, Tiananmen's memory has not vanished — it has gone global. From candlelight vigils in Taipei and Vancouver to art installations in Berlin and blockchain memorials hosted on GitHub and IPFS, young members of the diaspora are transforming remembrance into resistance. Even under erasure, memory adapts, resisting disappearance not through defiance alone, but through reinvention. What drove the protesters of 1989 — the demand for dignity, truth, and political voice — now pulses through a generation born after the massacre but unwilling to let it be buried. Attitudes are changing, and the youth are watching. Elisha Maldonado is the director of communications at the Human Rights Foundation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
