About 2,000 people gathered at the 33rd anniversary celebration of June 4th in Taipei, the largest in recent years. A large number of people from Taiwan and Hong Kong poured in, chanting “Recover Hong Kong, revolution of our times” and rebuild the “pillar of shame” that was demolished in Hong Kong last year. . Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen pointed out on Facebook that the collective memory of June 4 is being systematically erased in Hong Kong, and that such brutal methods cannot erase people’s memories. Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent an open letter to the Chinese people in simplified Chinese, encouraging people to search for the history of June 4 over the wall.
Chinese Democracy Academy and other non-governmental organizations held a June 4th commemorative party at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taiwan. Wu Renhua, who witnessed the June 4th event personally, recalled that a tank car ran over the student team in 1989/64. He knelt before the bodies of many victims and vowed never to forget them. After escaping from China, he continued to collect information on the June 4 massacre. He believes that after the leaders of the Hong Kong Stake Association mourned the arrest of June 4 last year, Taiwan has become the only country that can publicly commemorate June 4, demonstrating the value of Taiwan.
【About 1,000 people attended the Taiwan Memorial June 4th Gala】
[Unveiling the re-engraved version of “Pillar of Shame”]A number of civic groups including the Association of Chinese Democracy Academy held “Democracy Resists Totalitarianism, the World Supports Freedom: The 33rd Anniversary of June 4th” at the Democratic Avenue of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Emphasize that Taiwan is next to China, the behemoth that endangers universal values, and expresses the determination to protect democracy. The Cantonese chanting of “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of the times” resounded throughout the audience.#6433 pic.twitter.com/Cu9EtjMHQ0
— Radio Free Asia (@RFA_Chinese) June 4, 2022
The leader of the June 4th student movement, Wang Dan, said via video that the Communist Party of China, which brutally suppressed the peaceful protesters in 1989, has now expanded to the outside world, threatening human social democracy and all countries in the world. Wang Dan emphasized that the protection of historical memory is a resistance to totalitarian history, and he hopes to build a physical June 4 Memorial Hall in New York next year.
The biggest highlight of the Taipei June 4th Memorial Gala is to reshape Hong Kong’s “pillar of shame”. The host of the June 4th Gala said: “It stands up not only to represent Taiwan’s solidarity with Hong Kong, but also to represent Taiwan as a democratic Taiwan, an international Taiwan, and a Taiwan of the democratic camp, and we will never oppose China’s evil forces. Bow down, they dismantle! We cover!”
Hong Kong’s fallen pillar of shame Taipei crowdfunding reappears
Danish artist Gao Zhihuo’s “Pillar of National Mourning”, also known as the “Pillar of Shame”, has been erected at the University of Hong Kong for 23 years. Because Taiwanese crowdfunding only raised about 640,000 Taiwan dollars (about 140,000 yuan), which is only enough to reshape half of the original size and about 3 meters high. Countless human sculptures were stacked on the pillars. When the bright red pillar of shame was put together, a little girl asked her father, “Why is it red?”
“Murder! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot the elderly, the children, the women! Shoot the students, the teachers!”
Liao Yiwu, a witness of June 4th and a Chinese exiled poet, recited the poem “The Massacre” written for June 4th. “Get off the stage”, “Enough noise”.
The organizers of the June 4th Gala in Taipei estimated an influx of 2,000 people. About one-third of the people at the scene were from Taiwan and Hong Kong. During the shuttle, they heard Hong Kong people talking in Hong Kong dialect. Many young people at the scene are “younger” than the 33rd anniversary of the June 4th Incident, and the June 4th commemoration has become an introduction. The Hong Kong issue seems to be the home ground, and more is the cry of “Recover Hong Kong, the revolution of the times”. As long as the speeches and slogans of the Hong Kong people always resonate with the audience.
Huang Guocai, a Hong Kong artist in exile in Taiwan, said in his speech that the CCP regime is very scared. They have killed many people, and the ground is covered in blood. “Friends look for friends in piles of corpses, wives look for husbands in piles of corpses, parents look for their sons and daughters under the blood and corpses. The Chinese Communist Party is very afraid of passing on from generation to generation (June 4th), we just want it from generation to generation. Speaking of, let everyone know that they killed people, and justice will not let them go. Live! Pursue democracy and freedom, and their deaths will make sense.”
Victoria Park’s June 4th Continues “Hong Kong-Taiwan Community of Shared Future” in Taiwan
Huang Guocai asked the audience: “I’m not a Beijinger, why should I care about Beijing in 1989? I’m not a Xinjiang person, why should I care about the Xinjiang concentration camps? I’m not a Taiwanese, why should I care about Taiwan? Because we are an oppressed community of destiny .”
Zhou Yongkang, the former secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Post-secondary Students, said in a speech that after the National Security Law in Hong Kong suppressed freedom of speech, Hong Kong people must be scattered all over the world to mourn June 4th publicly, including Taipei, London, Vancouver, New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco Phantom City, Sydney, Tokyo,,, every place and democracy that still breathes free air.
Zhou Yongkang pointed out that the Beijing democracy movement in 1989 failed to pull down the CCP’s political system and promote democratization. It represented the CCP in China, and sooner or later ate its allies. First, Tibet, East Turkistan, Hong Kong, and possibly Taiwan. , South China Sea, East Asian countries,,, all the way down. It is necessary to continue the battle against totalitarianism today, not only for the Hong Kong people who have lost their freedom and their homes, but also for the Tibetans and Taiwanese. They are not in vain for the righteous people of the 1989 Movement, nor for the brothers and sisters who are suffering in Hong Kong, and they are not in vain to declare war on totalitarianism. ‘s companion.
Many Hong Kong people at the scene moved to Taiwan during the anti-extradition campaign in the past two years, continuing the mission of Hong Kong’s “Victoria Garden” to commemorate the June 4th candlelight. Ms. Liang, who shouted “Recover Hong Kong, the only way out” in the audience, was one of them. She mentioned that she had attended Victoria Park to commemorate the June 4th, and had been there for 30 years. In the same way, I feel that as long as we are here, what Hong Kong people cannot do, we will do it here.”
Ye Yang, a Taiwanese and Hong Konger who participated in the June 4th commemoration in Victoria Park for 13 years, said that the greatest significance of such a gathering is that there is still a thorn in his eye for the totalitarian CCP. At the June 4 meeting in Victoria Park, the front page of the newspapers must have a big report the next day. In mourning in Taiwan, there is a concept of community.
Hong Kong mother takes her child to June 4: “Silence is standing on the side of the dictatorship”
Miss Huang, who lived in Taiwan for two years, and her husband brought their 12-year-old and 10-year-old children to participate. She admitted that she had never participated in the June 4th commemoration in Victoria Park in the past. After the anti-extradition movement, she was vigilant and should stand up and expose the lies of the CCP. Ask for an apology for the fact of the massacre. “The children asked me why I came today? I told them, because if you stay silent, it means you stand on the side of the dictatorship, stand up, and do what is right.”
Ms. Tang, a 27-year-old Taiwanese, said in an interview with Radio Free Asia that it was the first time she participated in June 4th, and seeing so many Hong Kong people, she felt that the June 4th commemoration was a warning, and Hong Kong was a lesson from the past. “Many Hong Kong people who wore black clothes or brought protest tools at the time came to this place and their habitat is here. How should we view the June 4 incident together? This is a very unique thing this year. We can communicate.”
Lin Xinyi, director of the Tibet-Taiwan Human Rights Connection, said that this year not only will there be a memorial booth for June 4, but the organizers have also arranged a memorial booth for Hong Kong people and Tibetans to highlight the victims who face common threats. There are more than 150 names of Tibetans who self-immolated on the walls of the Tibetan memorial pavilion. The space also plays the Tibetans repeating their names and the song of Caiwang Luobu, a Tibetan singer who died after the self-immolation in February. Hada prayed.
There are strange voices in Taiwan to commemorate June 4th?Li Mingzhe: Pursuing the spirit of the June 4 generation to pursue democracy, freedom and human rights
Zeng Jianyuan, the organizer and chairman of the Chinese Academy of Democracy, said that in the past few days, friends have been questioning on Facebook that they don’t do anything about Taiwan on June 4th. If there is something, take June 4th as your own business, not only because of universal values, Chinese feelings, not only because of compassion, but also based on practical considerations. If China does not become a civilized and democratic country, how can Taiwan be independent and self-determined? How can it be possible to get blessings from the Chinese?
Taiwanese human rights worker Lee Ming-che, who was jailed for five years for subversion of state power by the CCP for spreading the history of Taiwan’s democratization in China, was released and returned to Taiwan only two months ago. In an interview with Radio Free Asia, he said, “June 4th belongs to China, of course, but the spirit of democracy, freedom and human rights that the June 4th generation pursued is what we all over the world must pursue, so we are actually inheriting the spirit of June 4th. This spirit of freedom and democracy, why do we Taiwanese commemorate June 4th, because we use June 4th to understand the evil nature of the Chinese government.”
However, Lee Ming-che admitted frankly that he had reservations about the reconstruction of the pillar of shame in Taiwan: “The pillar of shame has its meaning in Hong Kong, but when it is moved to Taiwan, its meaning disappears. I am in favor of Taiwan using another model that may build An image used to oppose China, which I support very much, should be a totem that belongs to Taiwan’s own interpretation.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to the “Chinese people” Tsai Ing-wen: Hong Kong’s memory of June 4th is being erased
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published an open letter “To the Chinese people” in simplified Chinese characters on Facebook, which stated that 33 years ago today, the voices of the pursuit of freedom and democracy gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and suddenly silenced overnight, breaking the memory of generations. . Every year when this day comes, there are many things that cannot be said, spoken, written, or even checked. “Since you have all seen this text with a VPN, you might as well search for ‘June 4 Tiananmen Square’ to see what information is being hidden in your own country, and who is deliberately hiding it. I hope that one day, you will no longer sacrifice yourself to become a political party. and hope that liberal democracy and human rights will become our common language and yours.”
President Tsai Ing-wen pointed out on Facebook on the 4th that Hong Kong, which has been commemorating June 4th with candlelight evenings for many years, has not had any applications for gatherings to commemorate June 4th this year for the first time. Statues about democracy and the June 4th spirit have also been removed inexplicably in many universities in Hong Kong. The collective memory of June 4 is being systematically erased in Hong Kong. “But we believe that such tyrannical measures cannot erase people’s memory. When democracy is threatened and authoritarianism is expanding in the world, we need to uphold democratic values, and firmly mutuality with international partners who share the idea of democracy and freedom. support.”
Taiwan’s former Kuomintang President Ma Ying-jeou pointed out on Facebook on the 4th that the “anti-China” trend led by the United States has made the situation more complicated, and the mainland can also turn its passive into an active message to the world. Last year, Xi Jinping talked about democracy, insisting that all power in the country belongs to the people, ensuring that the people are the masters of the country and rule the country according to law. He once again called on the mainland authorities to face history bravely and take responsibility before moving forward. I also take this opportunity to reflect on the fact that although Taiwan claims to be “democracy”, it has gradually fallen into “undemocratic democracy”, such as closing down TV news stations, liquidating opposition parties, and interfering with the judiciary.
In this regard, the DPP stated that Ma Ying-jeou misled the public, criticized Taiwan’s democracy, and flattered Xi Jinping. His remarks not only laughs at the world, but also may embarrass Zhu Lilun, who is currently visiting the United States. In February this year, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released the Global Democracy Index, showing that Taiwan ranked 8th, not only the highest in Asia, but also better than Europe and the United States and other major democracies. Obviously, Taiwan’s democratic system is highly recognized by the international community.
Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and Taipei Mayor Ko Wenzhe said on Facebook, “After 33 years, why do we still commemorate June 4th?” Just to remind the value of democracy and freedom. Democracy and freedom are universal values, a natural human right, not a gift from the government. This is the true meaning of commemorating June 4th.
Radio Free Asia reporter Xia Xiaohua Li Zonghan Taipei reporting editor Xu Shuting Eng Qing Web editor Jing Ming