By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI (Reuters) -The world will never forget China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Taiwan’s president and the top U.S. diplomat said on the 36th anniversary of an event Beijing treats as taboo and allows no public remembrance.
The events on and around the central Beijing square on June 4, 1989, when Chinese troops opened fire to end the student-led pro-democracy protests, are not publicly discussed in China and the anniversary is not officially marked.
Public commemorations take place in overseas cities including Taipei where senior Taiwan government leaders often use the anniversary to criticise China and urge it to face up to what it did.
Lai, in a post on Facebook on Wednesday, praised the courage of those who took part in the protests, saying human rights are a concept shared by Taiwan and other democracies that transcend generations and borders.
“The commemoration of the June 4 Tiananmen incident is not only to mourn history, but also to perpetuate this memory,” said Lai, who Beijing detests as a “separatist” and has rejected his repeated offers of talks.
“Authoritarian governments often choose to silence and forget history, while democratic societies choose to preserve the truth and refuse to forget those who gave their lives – and their dreams – to the idea of human rights,” he added.
“Not only do we refuse to forget history, we will implement our core values every day.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday praised the courage of the Chinese people who were killed in the bloody crackdown.
“Today we commemorate the bravery of the Chinese people who were killed as they tried to exercise their fundamental freedoms, as well as those who continue to suffer persecution as they seek accountability and justice for the events of June 4, 1989,” Rubio said in a statement.
“The CCP actively tries to censor the facts, but the world will never forget,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SECURITY TIGHT IN HONG KONG
Before dawn on June 4, 1989, Chinese tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square, crushing weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations by students and workers.
China has never provided a full death toll, but rights groups and witnesses say the figure could run into thousands. China blamed the protests on counter-revolutionaries seeking to overthrow the ruling Communist Party.
The Tiananmen Mothers, which represents relatives of those killed, put out this week their annual statement calling for a public accounting of what happened.
“The executioners of that year have passed away one after another, but as the continuation of the ruling party, the current government has a responsibility to respond to and address the Tiananmen Massacre,” Zhang Xianling, whose son Wang Nan was killed, said in a video message.
In Hong Kong, where thousands used to gather to mark the anniversary before China’s imposition of a national security law in 2020, security was tight around Victoria Park, the site of the previous mass candlelight vigils.
Hong Kong’s leader John Lee said on Tuesday police would take stringent enforcement actions against any acts endangering national security. A performance artist was forced to leave the vicinity of the park and a shop selling small white candles was raided by customs officials on Tuesday.
One jailed pro-democracy activist, Chow Hang-tung, is staging a 36 hour hunger strike in prison to mark the anniversary.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Jessie Pang and James Pomfret in Hong Kong; Editing by Michael Perry)
