From The Shadows: Ghosts Of Tiananmen

(Via CDT)

Any country with as long a history as China has to contend with an equally long memory. The Communist Party has tried to circumscribe it by outlawing any discussion on the Tiananmen Square massacre that took place 23 years ago today. But language, like thought, is an impossible captive. The ghosts of the massacre haunt the Chinese and every year some new revelation emerges from the shadows. Chen Xitong, the mayor of Beijing at the time, has just renounced the official version of events, telling a Hong Kong publisher that the bloodshed at Tiananmen Square was “actually a tragedy that could have been avoided and should have been avoided...Nobody should have died if it had been handled properly."

(Former Beijing mayor, Chen Xitong, with Hong Kong publisher, Yao Jianfu via WaPo)

The book, titled Conversation With Chen Xitong, went on sale this past Friday in Hong Kong despite threats from mainland authorities to halt its release. Hong Kong, a special administrative region, is ruled under a "one country, two systems policy," and remains the only enclave of free speech in China. Every year since the 1989 massacre, Hong Kong has hosted a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park. Last year, over 100,000 people attended.

(2009 Candlelight Vigil, Hong Kong, Via Yewco)

Hong Kong Vs. China: A Restless Truce

June 4th is the twenty-second anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. A Candlelight Vigil is held every year at Hong Kong's Victoria Park to commemorate it, the only place in all of China free to hold such an event.

The Forbidden City, Beijing

The vigil has always irked Beijing and they've tried for years to undermine any sign of "subversion" in Hong Kong. Authorities have deployed an old party trick: accuse someone of straying from the official line and shady figures emerge from the shadows to shuttle the poor sod away. It's a favorite tactic used by regimes currently darkening corners of the globe such as Burma (Myanmar), Uzbekistan and North Korea. What they share, apart from gross human rights violations, is a thriving relationship with China.

The Great Wall

In the "Middle Kingdom" the politics of vilification enjoys a long tradition. Anyone or anything that's perceived to threaten the government is quickly branded as counter-revolutionary. It happened with deadly precision during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976 when even esteemed cadres were not immune. Former paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, vanished twice, once in the late 60s and then again in 1976 after the death of Premier Zhou Enlai sparked the protests known as the Tiananmen Incident.

It happened again during the prelude to the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen massacre when the student protests were growing. The Communist Party newspaper, People's Daily, published an editorial accusing a "small number of people with ulterior purposes" of stirring up student unrest, of being counter-revolutionaries and creating turmoil. This effectively sealed the fate of the organizers and as a result, hardened their resolve to demand concessions from the government. The editorial is generally regarded as a major cause of the stalemate that arose between the students and the government, eventually causing the massacre and the subsequent purging of Zhao Ziyang, the reformist General Secretary of the Communist Party.

Zhao Ziyang with present-day Premier of China, Wen Jiabao, Tiananmen Square, May 19, 1989

As with the events of Tiananmen, Beijing is currently displaying increasing hostility by using trumped-up accusations to silence dissent. The list is long and includes Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Lui Xiaobo and internationally acclaimed artist, Ai Weiwei.

"Marble Arm" by Ai Weiwei (courtesy of Galerie Urs Meile)

This form of government terrorism threatens regional stability. As the lessons of World War II prove, a country that deprives its own citizens of human rights will disregard the rights of others. While Hong Kong enjoys more freedoms than the mainland as a result of its status as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) and "one country two systems" policy, Beijing has succeeded in tightening the noose in ever subtle and nefarious ways.

"Running Dog" Martin Lee with Nancy Pelosi

A few years ago, Beijing engaged in a so-called "patriotism campaign" to discredit the democratic movement. Martin Lee, the founding Chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, came under fire from Xinhua, the Beijing government's mouthpiece, which demonized Lee as a "traitor." The China Daily, the Communist Party's English newspaper, also chimed in to attack Lee as a "running dog of colonialists." Lee's family was also targeted. Government officials in Beijing lashed out at his late father, noted Kuomintang (KMT) General Li Yin-wo, also denouncing him as a traitor. Lee's father resisted the 1941-1945 Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, as well as the communists. He's widely regarded as a hero, an embodiment of virtue and a prime example of what differentiates Hong Kong from mainland China. For how long this difference can survive is up to the vigilance of patriots like Lee.

A Network Of Mutuality: The Tiananmen Massacre

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -MLK

Time is the great revelator -- it uncovers everything, eventually. One of the more profound ironies to have emerged from the 1989 Tiananmen massacre is the enduring image of the "unknown rebel" halting a procession of tanks with nothing more than a couple of shopping bags in his hands.


The fact that "tank man," as some call him, will forever live alongside the benevolent visage of Mao as symbols of China in the twentieth century is something to truly relish 20 years on.


While tank man wasn't able to stop the massacre that was already occurring -- not only in the vicinity of Tiananmen, but all around Beijing -- he was able to single handedly overturn perceptions. By doing so, he created a legacy extending far beyond the bloody culmination of those horrific events.


Living in Hong Kong for over 8 years has given me an insight into how the community reacts to the Tiananmen massacre every year. This year being the 20th anniversary has made it more sensitive than most. It's seen the publication of Zhao Ziyang's memoirs - Prisoner of the State - and people from all over the political spectrum speaking out about reconciliation, truth commissions or the wacko revisionism of the importance of the massacre to the prosperity of the nation. There's also been the shocking revelation of an assassination plot targeting veteran democracy advocate Martin Lee.

"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." -MLK

On June 4, the anniversary of the day the Chinese government tried to crush the spirit of its people, the legacy of tank man lives on. Let those who perished remind us of our mutuality, our single destiny.