Category: China

(Tibet) Dalai Lama honors Tiananmen dead

— “Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, paid tribute Thursday to those killed in the Tiananmen Square crackdown and urged China’s leaders to review the events that led to the bloodshed.”

China blocks any commemoration of Tiananmen crackdown
— AFP: “China blanketed Tiananmen Square with police and security forces, blocking any attempt to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the deadly crackdown on mass democracy protests.”
— “The government again defended the decision to put down the demonstrations, leaving hundreds and perhaps thousands dead, and firmly dismissed a US demand for a public accounting of the events of June 3-4, 1989”
— “Tens of thousands of people were expected to commemorate the anniversary around the world but the only major event on Chinese soil was to take place nearly 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) away in semi-autonomous Hong Kong”
— “An AFP TV journalist was ordered by police to delete footage from his camera, and local tourists near the square were reluctant to discuss the crackdown — a subject that remains taboo”

Tiananmen 20th anniversary brings new repression
— AP: “Chinese police aggressively deterred dissent on Thursday’s 20th anniversary of the crackdown on democracy activists in Tiananmen Square”
— “Foreign journalists were barred from the vast square as uniformed and plainclothes police stood guard across the vast plaza that was the epicenter of the student-led movement that was crushed by the military on the night of June 3-4, 1989”
— “Security officials checking passports also blocked foreign TV camera operators and photographers from entering the square to cover the raising of China’s national flag, which happens at dawn every day. Plain clothes officers aggressively confronted journalists on the streets surrounding the square, cursing and threatening violence against them.”

Tiananmen protester still defiant
— CNN: “If 63-year-old Chinese scholar Zhou Dou had his way, he would be on hunger strike on June 4, sitting quietly through the day at Purple Bamboo Park, 20 minutes’ taxi ride from Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.”
— “His aim: to mark the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown and to dramatize his defiant call for answers from Chinese authorities.”
— “‘What is the truth?’ he pressed rhetorically, as he discussed his plans with CNN a week earlier. ‘How many people were in fact robbed of their lives? The truth remains unknown, because the Chinese government has suppressed information about the truth on June 4th.'”

Exiled Tiananmen dissident back in Taiwan
— “One of the main student leaders from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests was deported to Taiwan on Thursday after failing to enter Macau and turn himself in to the Chinese government.”
— “‘I am deeply saddened that I have not been able to see my family for 20 years and that my intention to return by turning myself in was barred,’ Wu’er Kaixi told reporters after arriving at an airport outside Taipei.”

(Communist China) Police flood Tiananmen Square ahead of anniversary
— Daily Telegraph: “Several hundred police, paramilitaries and other security forces fanned out across the vast square, the symbolic centre of pro-democracy protests in 1989.”
— “Visitors were carefully vetted at checkpoints at entrances to the square, and foreign journalists were barred from entering. Inside the square, plain-clothes and uniformed officers vastly outnumbered a smattering of tourists around the huge portrait of Chairman Mao.”
— “Chinese authorities also made sure there were no embarrassing signs of protest or commemoration elsewhere in Beijing. Television shows featuring foreign panelists have been rescheduled and websites, including Hotmail and Twitter, have been blocked.”
— “Ding Zilin, 72, whose 17-year-old son was shot dead during the bloodshed said her plan to lay a wreath where he fell has been thwarted by the authorities. ‘They are not letting me out [of my home],’ she said.”
— “Qi Zhiyong, a 53-year-old dissident who lost his leg in 1989, was forcefully removed from the capital on Wednesday. ‘Every day I have to take my daughter to school in a police car. Today, after I saw her off, the police refused to let me get out of the car. Two more policemen got in and forced me to sit in the middle. They are now taking me out of Beijing,’ he said.”
— “In Hong Kong, which remains the only part of China where free speech exists, a second dissident was denied an entry visa. Xiang Xiaoji was turned around at Hong Kong airport and sent back to New York after arriving to take part in a candlelit vigil planned for Thursday.”
— “In Times Square, a glitzy shopping district in the centre of Hong Kong, eleven students had yesterday completed more than 48 hours of a hunger strike in memory of the victims. “We will continue until tomorrow morning,” said Kwok Wing Kin, 23.”
— “As he spoke, a queue of bystanders voiced their support and laid flowers at the foot of a six-foot replica of the Goddess of Liberty statue that was first erected in Tiananmen Square. ‘We have had some support from mainland visitors too,’ he said. ‘Part of the reason we are doing this is to show people from the mainland what is possible'”

Beijing Bans Ceremonies Commemorating 20th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre
— Epoch Times: “2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the June 4th Tiananmen Square Massacre. Ceremonies are being held around the world urging the Chinese regime to reveal the truth behind the event, but Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities have taken every opportunity to avoid the issue. So far, 60 people are known to have been arrested, detained or monitored. Many others seem to have disappeared completely.”
— “Overseas Chinese dissidents are hoping to raise awareness of the anniversary by calling for a ‘White Clothes Day’ campaign. The movement aims to completely cover China in white (the culture’s color of mourning) by appealing to Chinese people all over the nation to wear white clothing on June 4th. But Chinese authorities have issued an order to ensure that students won’t participate in the event, and at the same time, tightened their control.”
— “According to news from Boxun.net, the Chinese government sent out a secret urgent notice to all levels of CCP Committees in colleges and universities in Beijing to make sure that students don’t wear white on June 4th.”
— “Human rights defenders in Shanghai city were planning to wear white clothing and hold a ceremony in front of the City Hall on June 4th. However, when the authority heard about plans for the event, they began arresting and monitoring ‘key persons.'”

Tiananmen security tight on crackdown anniversary
— AP: “Police saturated Tiananmen Square with security Thursday, the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy activists, and an exiled protest leader was blocked from returning home to confront Chinese officials over what he called the ‘June 4 massacre.'”
— “Foreign journalists were barred from the vast square as both uniformed and plainclothes police fanned out across the plaza that had been the epicenter of the student-led movement that was crushed by the military on the night of June 3-4, 1989”
— “The square was closed Wednesday for a welcoming ceremony for the prime minister of Malaysia and had not been reopened as of midnight. Tiananmen Square is usually closed only temporarily during important events such as the opening of the annual legislative session”

Tiananmen Student Leader Seeks Entry to Macau
— “A prominent student leader from the 1989 pro-democracy protests at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square says he’s arrived in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau to turn himself in.”
— “Wu’er Kaixi told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday that immigration officials at Macau’s airport took him to a room after he arrived from Taipei. He was not immediately told if he will be allowed to enter the territory.”
— “Wu’er escaped from China after the government’s military crackdown on the 1989 protests and now lives in exile in the self-ruled island of Taiwan.”
— “Wu’er said separately in a statement issued by a friend that he wants to turn himself in to the Chinese government so he can see his family and believes he did nothing wrong.”