Daily Lessons from Life 04 June 2011 - Thousands in HK mark Tiananmen crackdown

"Thousands in HK mark Tiananmen crackdown - 04 June 2011 AFP

HONG KONG: Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong on Saturday marked the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, as China defies international condemnation with an ongoing roundup of political dissidents.

A sea of people, mostly clad in black as a sign of mourning, held up candles and sang solemn songs -- some with teary eyes -- as they filled an area the size of six football fields at the Victoria Park, the only commemoration on Chinese soil.

Organisers said 150,000 people had converged on park, with many others still struggling to make their way through the crowds to the site.

"I am here with a heavy heart, it is very emotional for me," Gladys Liu, a 48-year-old mother-of-two told AFP.

"I still remember the scenes -- how the army tanks were sent in to break up the student-led protests. I was following the news closely, I never thought it would turn so violent," said Liu, who turned up with her son, 14, and nine-year-old daughter.

"I want my children to know what happened. This is not something that can be learned in school," she added.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, are believed to have died when the government sent in tanks and soldiers to clear Beijing's Tiananmen Square on the night of June 3-4, 1989, bringing a violent end to six weeks of pro-democracy protests.

An official verdict after the protests called them a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" although the wording has since been softened.

"I want to know the truth of June 4," said 17-year-old student Melissa Tang, who was among many youngsters at the vigil, as she raised candle in the air.

"Maybe we don't have the full picture of what happened but the students at the 1989 protests deserve our respect," said Tang, who was with a group of classmates.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 but retains a semi-autonomous status with civil liberties -- including the right to protest -- not enjoyed in mainland China.

In Beijing, where the Tiananmen protests remain a taboo topic, thousands of Chinese and foreign tourists flocked to the giant square on Saturday amid a heavy police presence, but many shied away from answering questions on the incident.

China attempts to block any public discussion or remembrance of the events by hiding away key dissidents in the run-up to June 4 each year, taking them into custody or placing them under house arrest, friends and activists say.

"As for the political turbulence that took place in the last century in the late 1980s, the Communist Party and government have already made a conclusion," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday.

The Hong Kong vigil was preceded by an annual Tiananmen march last Sunday joined by some 1,000 people, and a series of events including a 64-hour hunger strike on the eve of the anniversary to honour those who died.

Pro-democracy supporters also took out a full-page advertisement in the popular Chinese-language Apple Daily Saturday to call for justice for the Tiananmen victims and the immediate release of Chinese political dissidents."

4th of June 1989. The night the army tanks crushed unsuspecting students who were supposedly protesting peacefully against something! Something like: corruption or social injustice or something.

Lessons for me are:

1. it is a fact that people died that night. There is no disputing this except those in the CCP and the authorities responsible. Even up to today!;

2. what is not so clear was what would have become of PRC IF that peaceful protest took its full course? Will China be what it is today? Would there had been this economic 'miracles' witnessed by the world? Would it be a better PRC not for the economic miracle but a better PRC for not progressing economically?;

3. it is interesting that the mother and the young student wanting to know more about this incident. What happened? What did the students, and non-students, went through what must be a terrifying night? What could be learned? What can be done for those killed? What does it mean for the Hong Kong's public to continue to try to be the beacon of 'freedom of speech' in a '1 country 2 systems' structure until the 1st 50 years of 'self-rule' after being returned to the motherland?

For me, it is important to look at the current PRC. It is facing an array of challenges unprecedented. The economic miracle so lauded by the rest of the world did not really benefit the 800-900m have-not. The ordinary people in the bulging cities are not happy. They are angry about, yes, corruptions! About high cost of living! About high property prices! All the standard items that caused other ruling authorities to fall elsewhere. If the great mass of unemployed continue to increase, nobody knows what will happen. Another killing field for another batch of protesters like those on 4th of June 1989? Or it will take more than a single massive protest to bring the worst nightmare a reality?

An interesting case to observe, from afar...

p/s: Ms Li Na has just become the 1st Asian and Chinese winner of the French Open Tennis! Historical moment on a bloody historical night!! Something good will come from this? ...