Police warn families of Tiananmen crackdown victims not to visit graves on 37th anniversary
Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago Thursday, in a further tightening of a yearslong campaign to erase what happened from public memory.
Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution.
Relatives of the victims visited the cemetery on the anniversary for more than 30 years to read memorial statements with police keeping watch, Amnesty International said. They belong to a group called Tiananmen Mothers.
Hundreds of people, and possibly thousands, were killed in 1989 as troops advanced through crowds that were trying to stop the military from reaching the protesters in Tiananmen Square, a vast plaza in the centre of the Chinese capital.
The decision by the Communist Party leadership to send in the military was a pivotal moment in China’s modern history, determining that the market reform that transformed the country into the world’s second largest economy would not be coupled with political liberalisation.
In Hong Kong, police stepped up security Thursday to prevent any commemoration at or near a park where a massive candlelight vigil lit up the night every year until a clampdown following major anti-Government protests in 2019.
On Wednesday, they stopped two performance artists from making symbolic gestures in separate incidents. One briefly held up a question-mark-shaped balloon outside a department store.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who recently accompanied President Donald Trump on a state visit to Beijing, issued a statement marking the anniversary. “No amount of censorship can erase the past,” it said. “Those who sacrificed to uphold their unalienable rights of free expression and peaceful assembly will be vindicated someday.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning dismissed the statement as a smear on her nation’s political system. “We urge the US side to ... stop using so-called democracy and human rights as a pretext to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” she said.
Tiananmen Mothers issued an annual appeal for justice ahead of this year’s anniversary. The statement, signed by 107 people, demanded full disclosure of what happened, compensation for the victims and their families and the pursuit of legal accountability for those responsible.
“The sacrifice of our family members is an indelible pain etched in our hearts. Our tears have run dry, grief is buried deep within, what remains is eternal remembrance of our family members and hatred for the crime of massacring the people,” Zhang Xianling, a member of the group, said in a video message posted on Facebook - which is blocked in China.
Amnesty said it is deeply troubling that China’s suppression of the commemoration appears to be escalating. “Banning the relatives of people killed in the Tiananmen crackdown from visiting their loved ones’ graves is a heartless act by the Chinese authorities,” Sarah Brooks, the organisation’s deputy director for Asia, said in a statement.
The Beijing Public Security Bureau did not respond to a faxed request for comment. Authorities in Hong Kong have banned the vigil since 2020, at first citing the COVID-19 pandemic. Simon Ng, a past participant, walked around the nearby Causeway Bay shopping district to mark the anniversary. “There are some things I can neither forget nor let go, so I have to come and take a walk,” he said.
