- Joined
- Apr 17, 2009
- Messages
- 43,132
- Likes
- 23,835
Tiananmen Square: Chinese police try to silence 25th anniversary
Six weeks before the most sensitive date in China's calendar, a campaign to make sure the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen protests passes unmarked is in full swing
Chinese police are waging a clampdown on those who might try to mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre in June, focusing efforts to silence dissent on the families of the hundreds of protesters and civilians who were gunned down by the military.
Since June 4, 1989, when the People's Liberation Army (PLA) opened fire in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square killing a still unknown number of students, the Communist Party has tried to airbrush the event from Chinese history. Schools do not teach it, domestic media are forbidden from discussing it, and activists who invoke its memory have been harassed and even jailed.
As the anniversary approaches, those efforts have been ramped up, with police monitoring and detaining anyone who might dare to publicly remember it.
Ding Zilin, 77, the founder of a group of relatives known as the Tiananmen Mothers, has been unreachable since March and is under heavy surveillance by police.
He Yang, a Beijing-based documentary maker, was detained by national security agents when he tried to visit Ms Ding at her home on March 20.
"I didn't even make it to her door," said Mr He, 44, who had arranged by telephone to interview Ms Ding, whose son was shot dead during the 1989 crackdown.
Officers produced a letter stating he was to be held on suspicion of "endangering national security".
"Ding is a member of the Tiananmen Mothers group which is defined as a hostile organisation aiming to subvert Communist Party rule," he added.
Security agents later searched the house where he lives with his wife and young child, he said, and confiscated several computer hard drives.
"I told them I had done nothing illegal and they replied that they knew exactly what I had done and whether it was against the law," said Mr He, whose films focus on human rights in China.
The filmmaker said he was released from custody at 8am the following day and was made to sign a letter agreeing to avoid the topic of the Tiananmen massacre.
"For now, I will not touch on filming related to June 4 since it will definitely land you in prison, and it won't be a short jail term either."
"I didn't expect it would turn out to be a big issue. I was just going to film an old woman, it was no big deal," he added. "[But] this time I know I was close to touching their most sensitive nerve."
You Weijie, 61, the current spokesman of the Tiananmen Mothers, has had her home phone line disconnected. When contacted, she said: "I cannot speak to you. You can imagine what the situation is like down here."
A liberal Chinese journalist, Gao Yu, has also disappeared. Her friends have been searching for her since last Thursday and she failed to attend a private gathering of liberals last Saturday.
Ms Gao, 70, had planned to travel to Hong Kong to take part in a conference on May 3. Attempts by her publisher, Mirrorbooks, and her lawyer, Teng Biao, to contact her failed.
Ms Gao has spent a total of seven years in jail for her journalism. She was arrested on June 3, 1989, just before the Tiananmen massacre and was arrested again in October 1993 for publishing "state secrets".
Attempts by The Telegraph to interview other seemingly uncontroversial figures involved in the run-up to the Tiananmen massacre resulted in a short detention in Beijing.
"I'm sure the 25th anniversary makes them more nervous. This is a big deal for them," said Perry Link, the professor emeritus of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, who is himself banned from China for life for helping Fang Lizhi, a prominent astrophysicist and dissident, find refuge at the US embassy in June 1989.
"They are really nervous about keeping the lid on top." He added that those who dared to speak out about the Tiananmen protests faced a bombardment of government "push and pull" sanctions ranging from apparently friendly warnings to direct threats, house arrest and even imprisonment.
"There is a price for telling the truth," he said.
Tiananmen Square: Chinese police try to silence 25th anniversary - Telegraph
************************************************************
This is the way China ensures that all looks hunky dory about China to the outside world.
This is the image where people like @Pratap are encouraged to sing paeans to China and believe that China is a very 'tolerant' nations and where they handle separatists with kid gloves unlike others.
One might remind such deluded people that where China cannot quarantine an area, the real truth peep and leaks out!
Six weeks before the most sensitive date in China's calendar, a campaign to make sure the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen protests passes unmarked is in full swing
Chinese police are waging a clampdown on those who might try to mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre in June, focusing efforts to silence dissent on the families of the hundreds of protesters and civilians who were gunned down by the military.
Since June 4, 1989, when the People's Liberation Army (PLA) opened fire in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square killing a still unknown number of students, the Communist Party has tried to airbrush the event from Chinese history. Schools do not teach it, domestic media are forbidden from discussing it, and activists who invoke its memory have been harassed and even jailed.
As the anniversary approaches, those efforts have been ramped up, with police monitoring and detaining anyone who might dare to publicly remember it.
Ding Zilin, 77, the founder of a group of relatives known as the Tiananmen Mothers, has been unreachable since March and is under heavy surveillance by police.
He Yang, a Beijing-based documentary maker, was detained by national security agents when he tried to visit Ms Ding at her home on March 20.
"I didn't even make it to her door," said Mr He, 44, who had arranged by telephone to interview Ms Ding, whose son was shot dead during the 1989 crackdown.
Officers produced a letter stating he was to be held on suspicion of "endangering national security".
"Ding is a member of the Tiananmen Mothers group which is defined as a hostile organisation aiming to subvert Communist Party rule," he added.
Security agents later searched the house where he lives with his wife and young child, he said, and confiscated several computer hard drives.
"I told them I had done nothing illegal and they replied that they knew exactly what I had done and whether it was against the law," said Mr He, whose films focus on human rights in China.
The filmmaker said he was released from custody at 8am the following day and was made to sign a letter agreeing to avoid the topic of the Tiananmen massacre.
"For now, I will not touch on filming related to June 4 since it will definitely land you in prison, and it won't be a short jail term either."
"I didn't expect it would turn out to be a big issue. I was just going to film an old woman, it was no big deal," he added. "[But] this time I know I was close to touching their most sensitive nerve."
You Weijie, 61, the current spokesman of the Tiananmen Mothers, has had her home phone line disconnected. When contacted, she said: "I cannot speak to you. You can imagine what the situation is like down here."
A liberal Chinese journalist, Gao Yu, has also disappeared. Her friends have been searching for her since last Thursday and she failed to attend a private gathering of liberals last Saturday.
Ms Gao, 70, had planned to travel to Hong Kong to take part in a conference on May 3. Attempts by her publisher, Mirrorbooks, and her lawyer, Teng Biao, to contact her failed.
Ms Gao has spent a total of seven years in jail for her journalism. She was arrested on June 3, 1989, just before the Tiananmen massacre and was arrested again in October 1993 for publishing "state secrets".
Attempts by The Telegraph to interview other seemingly uncontroversial figures involved in the run-up to the Tiananmen massacre resulted in a short detention in Beijing.
"I'm sure the 25th anniversary makes them more nervous. This is a big deal for them," said Perry Link, the professor emeritus of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, who is himself banned from China for life for helping Fang Lizhi, a prominent astrophysicist and dissident, find refuge at the US embassy in June 1989.
"They are really nervous about keeping the lid on top." He added that those who dared to speak out about the Tiananmen protests faced a bombardment of government "push and pull" sanctions ranging from apparently friendly warnings to direct threats, house arrest and even imprisonment.
"There is a price for telling the truth," he said.
Tiananmen Square: Chinese police try to silence 25th anniversary - Telegraph
************************************************************
This is the way China ensures that all looks hunky dory about China to the outside world.
This is the image where people like @Pratap are encouraged to sing paeans to China and believe that China is a very 'tolerant' nations and where they handle separatists with kid gloves unlike others.
One might remind such deluded people that where China cannot quarantine an area, the real truth peep and leaks out!
Last edited by a moderator:
