Taiwan marks Tiananmen massacre anniversary, showing freedom denied Hong Kong
Taiwan human rights groups organized a series of events to commemorate the bloody June 4 crackdown in 1989, with activists saying the island faced the same threat as Hong Kong faces from China’s encroachment of freedoms in the region.
As Hong Kong authorities banned organized protests to mark the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square bloodshed, the lack of restrictions in Taiwan underscored the growing gulf in liberty between the once-free city of Hong Kong and the democratic, self-ruled island that Beijing wants to rule.
Inside Taipei’s Liberty Square, activists placed a placard, written “Commemorate the dead souls of Tiananmen Square massacre,” in one event starting Friday afternoon.
Due to the current coronavirus outbreak in the capital and other parts of Taiwan, participants took turns to visit the site to lay flowers and look at the photographs from 1989.
Among the visitors was Hong Kong bookseller-turned-activist Lam Wing-kee, who described Taiwan as “being at the forefront” of defending people’s liberties as the Chinese Communist Party tries to exert influence in the region.
Lam was among several booksellers abducted in Hong Kong in 2015 and subsequently detained on the mainland over political works their bookstore offered. He was later released, but decided to move to Taiwan in 2019 for fear that he would be targeted again.
On Friday night, an online forum was organized by Taiwan rights groups in collaboration with activists from other parts of the region, including from Thailand and Myanmar.
Speakers included Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Jiangang. He said the Chinese Communist Party has gone to great lengths in playing down this part of Chinese history but the truth “lies with the people,” not the authorities.
Following Hong Kong’s ban on the annual June 4 vigil, the government may attempt to rewrite history in local textbooks, said Sunny Cheung, a Hong Kong activist who attended the forum.
Last year, about 3,000 people attended a similar event in Taipei. But the turnout at Liberty Square was significantly lower on Friday. Late in the afternoon, organizers announced the commemoration booth had been vandalized by a group of pro-Beijing supporters.
The people of Taiwan must stay resilient in the face of rising threats from China, as they may share the same fate as Hong Kong, political analyst Sang Pu told Apple Daily.
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