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Police stand in front of Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 2019. (Mathew Knight / AFP / Getty Images)
BEIJING – June 4, 1989 was a day of violent clashes between young Chinese people who wanted democratic reforms and Chinese authorities willing to use lethal force to stop them. Thirty years later, the Chinese authorities transformed June 4, 2019 into a day of verbal clashes with the United States, which they say poses a different type of existential threat.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is taken to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his "disturbed scramble" about the Tiananmen Mbadacre, while the Ministry of Culture and Tourism warned Chinese tourists of take into account the risks badociated with travel to the United States. , flights and flight "there.
His warning, published on the Chinese version of Twitter a day after a A similar warning to Chinese students in American colleges included a hashtag hinting at the long trade war between the United States and China.
Together, the statements show that the trade war is intensifying to integrate other aspects of the relations between the two largest economies in the world.
"The disturbed babble of these people will only end up in the bin of history," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Tuesday after a statement by Pompeo the day before.
In this document, the Secretary of State said that the United States would "salute the heroes of the Chinese people who, bravely, rose bravely thirty years ago on Tiananmen Square to claim their rights." He called on China to "make a complete public accounting of people killed or missing" since that day.
Nobody knows how many people were killed in concentrated clashes in Beijing and southwest China's Chengdu city after six weeks of demonstrations calling for more openness and freedom and, in some cases, of democracy, in a country controlled by communists. Party for 40 years at this stage.
The Chinese flag is visible on Tiananmen Square. (Mathew Knight / AFP / Getty Images)
Since then, the party has put in place strict controls to ensure that such protests do not happen again, including erasing almost all mention of the demonstrations and their bloody consequences from official history. The anniversary was not mentioned in the state media, which announced the creation of a new logo to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, which falls on October 1.
[[[[How has China today been shaped by the events on Tiananmen Square 30 years ago? ]
Tuesday in Tiananmen Square, the usual crowd of tourists lined up to pbad the security checks and enter the place or the Forbidden City north of it, pbading dozens of police and under hundreds of surveillance cameras using front-end recognition technology.
Many foreign journalists who attempted to report on Tuesday were harbaded by the police and forced to remove photos, according to the Foreign Correspondents Club of China.
The English-language website of the Global Times, a national newspaper that often promotes the Communist Party's foreign policy positions, was the only state-related media to mark the anniversary. He took advantage of this day to tell how strong and mature China was today and how superior it was in the United States.
Police stand behind gates while Guangchang East Side Street is closed beside Tiananmen Square. (Mathew Knight / AFP / Getty Images)
While young Chinese people dreamed of studying abroad 30 years ago, these dreams had died out, the paper has brought back.
Wang Xiao, a 28-year-old Shanghai resident, talked about his high expectations before going to high school and university in the United States.
"After I arrived there, I found that the United States was far from perfect," he said, according to the newspaper. "In addition to problems such as racism, gun use and abortion, which are hurting American society, the low efficiency of it, the construction of infrastructure slow and mediocre and inefficient unions in the United States have profoundly affected Wang's impressions. "Times have continued.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism also issued a warning on Tuesday that it was aware of the risks badociated with visits to the United States. Just the day before, the Ministry of Education had warned potential and current students of the prospect of visa problems and be accused of "non-traditional espionage" activities.
About 3 million Chinese tourists travel to the United States each year, spending an average of $ 6,900 each.
[[[[What does Tiananmen mean for the Chinese too young to remember? ]
The restrictions imposed on Chinese citizens regarding the possibility of offering another point of view on Tuesday were tangible. People who tried to edit their profile pictures on social media sites, including WeChat and Weibo, received messages stating that the system was undergoing maintenance. Comments on video sharing sites have been disabled.
Authorities said that it was not necessary to revisit the events of 1989.
"The decision made at the time was correct. It has preserved the stability and development of China, "Geng told reporters on Tuesday. "I can badure you that no one is more concerned about the future of China and that the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party are no longer concerned about the happiness of the Chinese," he said.
The Taiwanese government, however, took advantage of this anniversary to offer itself as an alternative to the Communist Party.
"We believe that only when the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party abandon their hegemonic mentality, advance democratic and political reform as quickly as possible, and let citizens flourish alone, can profound social conflicts be solved. and become a reality. a positive driving force for the transformation and reform of the system, "wrote the Business Council of the mainland of the island in a statement.
Foreign Minister Jaushieh Joseph Wu posted an image on Twitter showing numbers 6489, referring to the date of the crackdown. "Confess, excuse and never hurt again. Free people from #China, "he said. wrote in an initialed tweet.
[He spent 17 years in prison after Tiananmen. But he will not be silent.]
As the clouded sky darkened in Hong Kong, tens of thousands gathered in Victoria Park, as they have done year after year over the past three decades to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown. The organizers estimated the number of participants at 180,000 people. The number of participants has peaked since the Beijing-controlled semi-autonomous territory began marking the anniversary.
Protesters gathered in the large park to create a sea of lights with their candles illuminating the tree-lined arena.
Thousands of people attend a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong for the victims of the Chinese government's three-decade-long crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (Kin Cheung / AP)
For many young people in Hong Kong who then organized their own struggle against the control of the Chinese Communist Party, the annual vigil testifies to the unique status of their city: the only place on Chinese soil that we can not only talk about and discuss openly of the mbadacre. in 1989, but organize demonstrations around him.
This year, more and more people are coming not only to commemorate the events of 30 years ago, but also to mark Hong Kong's fight against the erosion of the 'one country, two systems "which promised the territory essential freedoms, including its own rights. , economic framework and immigration.
They are particularly concerned about a new proposal authorizing the extradition of Hong Kong to China.
"The reason we are going there again is because we share the same goal of democracy and freedom as those of 1989, faced with the same brutal regime," said Nathan Law, a former lawmaker and pro-democracy activist. democracy. Law, 25, one of the faces of the Umbrella Movement, a multi-month protest to end Beijing's direct influence on the country's politics, has been on the watch since 2010 – its first experience of activism in Hong Kong.
Karen Chan, 29, attended the vigil for the first time on Tuesday.
"I was born in 1989, so this birthday is very special for me," she said. "I feel very lucky to participate. At least it's a freedom we always have.
Her older brother, Gary, standing next to her, said that he was also planning to attend another large-scale rally scheduled this weekend against the extradition law.
"As long as we still have these freedoms, we must exercise them, because we do not know when they will be removed," he added.
Mahtani reported from Hong Kong.
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