At the request of the Tiananmen Mothers, Human Rights in China (HRIC) is issuing the following essay by the group to commemorate the victims of June Fourth on its 26th anniversary. Quoting Premier Li Keqiang’s March 2015 speech that Japan’s leaders today bear historical responsibility for Japan’s war of aggression in China in the 1930s: “the leaders of a state not only inherit their predecessors’ successes, but should also bear historical responsibility for their predecessors’ crimes,” the group asks: “By the same logic, shouldn’t today’s Chinese leaders bear responsibility for the series of crimes—manmade famine and slaughter—perpetrated in their own country by China’s leaders at the time: Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping?”
Chinese Leaders Cannot Escape Their Historical Responsibility for the June Fourth Massacre—
Commemorating the 26th Anniversary of the June Fourth Tragedy
Tiananmen Mothers
June 1, 2015
[Translation by Human Rights in China]
A quarter century has passed since the June Fourth Massacre that took place in Beijing, China’s capital, near the end of the last century. But the truth of this tragedy has to this day not been laid bare to the world, and the massacre victims, who have still not received justice, cannot rest in peace. This is a disgrace for the whole Chinese people, and a disgrace for all of civilized humanity!
For two long decades since year 1995, we, as victims and families of victims of the June Fourth tragedy, have been faithfully writing letters to the Two Congresses and the Chinese leaders—stating that the 1989 Tiananmen bloodshed was not a misdeed by the government, but a crime it committed against its people. We ask for a public and just resolution to the June Fourth issue and seek discussion and dialogue with the government concerning the remaining June Fourth issues. Our three demands are: reinvestigate June Fourth and make public the names and number of the deceased; provide an explanation and compensation to the family of each of the victims in accordance with the law; and prosecute those criminally responsible for the June Fourth tragedy. In summary, we seek truth, compensation, and accountability.
However, our appeals have met with no reply.
In the last century, many innocent people’s lives were lost—80 million (some say 60 million) under the rule of the Communist Party of China alone. During the Land Reform and Suppress the Counterrevolutionaries campaigns in the 1950s, many people were beaten to death or murdered; the Great Leap Forward from the late 1950s to the early 1960s (which was in fact the Great Famine) starved numerous people to death; from the 1960s to the 1970s, the nationwide and decade-long turmoil of the Cultural Revolution resulted in the suicide and murder of many people. And near the end of the century, the bloodshed of June 4, 1989 occurred, when the fully-armed field army entered Beijing to carry out the most gruesome massacre of students and other residents, spraying them with machine guns, and crushing their own compatriots with tanks. Exactly how many people died? The number has been tightly concealed to this day.
After the June Fourth bloodshed, we stood up from where our loved ones fell—one by one, we gathered group by group, and gradually we organized ourselves as the Tiananmen Mothers group. In the endless night of darkness, we struggled, lost, struggled, and lost again. Yet we have never stopped, never rested. We did not despair or become discouraged at each failure, did not retreat or disperse. Instead, we continued forward, attracting more and more of those who share the same fate to come to our group.
Two thousand fourteen marked the critical 25th anniversary of June Fourth, when the Tiananmen Mothers as a whole suffered a new level of strict surveillance and suppression. Originally, we had planned that beginning with the 10th anniversary of June Fourth, victims' families in Beijing would hold a collective memorial ceremony every five years. We would bring our deceased family members’ photos, gather in one of our homes, offer flowers, burn incense and light candles, play solemn music, and sprinkle wine to mourn our loved ones, so as to express our sorrows and comfort our loved ones’ souls.
In 1999, the 10th anniversary of June Fourth, we carried out our memorial ceremony under the tight surveillance of plainclothes police.
In 2004, the 15th anniversary, despite the wrongful treatment during the “T-shirt Incident”[1] in March, we still carried out our memorial ceremony under the watch of plainclothes police.
In 2009, the 20th anniversary, apart from Ding Zilin and her husband, who were under house arrest and could not participate, other victims’ families all held the memorial ceremony despite interference.
In 2014, the 25th anniversary of June Fourth, we had originally decided to hold the memorial ceremony in one of our homes on May 16. However, from Tomb-sweeping Day in April to around June 10, the majority of the Tiananmen Mothers in Beijing were visited by officials from the Municipal Public Security Bureau, State Security Brigade, district police sub-stations, and neighborhood committees to “have a talk.” Watch stations were set up outside their homes. And they were followed and watched when they went out. Therefore, the scheduled ceremony had to be abandoned. Even our annual statement on June Fourth could not be issued. In worse cases, some of our members’ homes were searched: Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau officials came to these members’ homes to have “talks” with them that lasted entire days, from morning until night, which ended only when they “voluntarily” surrendered all the documents stored on their personal computers. Ding Zilin and her husband were put under house arrest outside of Beijing from May 4 to June 5. They were, for the first time, not able to keep vigil with their son’s spirit (his ashes are kept in their Beijing home) on his birthday (June 2) and death anniversary (June 3), let alone hold a memorial ceremony at home.
Monitoring of the Tiananmen Mothers did not stop with the passing of the 25th anniversary of June Fourth. Instead, it has become an all-encompassing “new normal.” Previously, the authorities mainly tapped the landlines and mobile phones of some of our core members to keep track of our activities before taking actions. Since early this year, they went so far as installing a bugging device inside the homes of certain members of the Tiananmen Mothers. When members had discussions of matters we were all concerned about, they recorded our conversations—including the drafts of the documents we read out loud—and then intimidated them. The families of victims, filled with righteous anger, denounce such despicable practices
They killed our family members without any explanation; when we demand justice—there is none. There is only persecution and monitoring to shut our mouths, and this is getting worse and worse.
In March 2015, Premier Li Keqiang said at the Two Congresses’ press conference, “the leaders of a state not only inherit their predecessors’ successes, but should also bear historical responsibility for their predecessors’ crimes.” He was referring to the Japanese military imperialists’ war of aggression against China, and saying that today’s leaders of the Japanese government should bear historical responsibility for the catastrophe their predecessors created in China. By the same logic, shouldn’t today’s Chinese leaders bear responsibility for the series of crimes—manmade famine and slaughter—perpetrated in their own country by China’s leaders at the time: Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping? This is a certainty without a doubt and not easily changed. This is what “upholding a correct view of history, using history as a mirror [to look to the future]” means. The people will wait and see.
[The leaders] cannot impose a forced amnesia: remember whatever is beneficial to them and forget whatever is damaging to them. From June Fourth to now, each leadership [regime] in China has adopted selective forgetting about June Fourth. We have to unequivocally tell our leaders today that, relying on coerced selective forgetting can only succeed temporarily, and people’s silence cannot sustain over the long term. Debts must always be paid, and can neither be evaded nor reneged on.
The Chinese government’s concealment and deception about June Fourth since 1989 has rendered the whole society an empty shell, where every corner of society is shrouded in pervasive gloom, apathy, despair, and depravity, without fairness, justice, integrity, shame, reverence, remorse, tolerance, responsibility, compassion, or love. Post-June Fourth youth, in particular, cannot find anything about June Fourth in books, magazines, or online media. They cannot find anything about June Fourth victims, their families, or the Tiananmen Mothers. Even the entire history of June Fourth has become a blank for them. Whose fault is this?
Don’t forget what year this is—why people commemorate the 70th anniversary of the world’s victory against fascism, why we commemorate the 70th anniversary of China’s victory in the War of Resistance against Japan, why Taiwan commemorates the “228 ” suppression [of Taiwanese intellectuals], and why Korea commemorates the Gwangju Massacre each year. We ask: when, which day, which year will China also commemorate the tragic deaths of those innocents in the Land Reform and Suppress the Counterrevolutionaries campaigns, the ordinary people who starved to death during the Great Famine, the Chinese citizens tortured and persecuted to death during the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, and the victims of the June Fourth Massacre? People are all united in this belief and abide by this logic!
Signatories:
尤维洁 You Weijie |
郭丽英 Guo Liying |
张彦秋 Zhang Yanqiu |
吴丽虹 Wu Lihong |
尹 敏 Yin Min |
郝义传 Hao Yichuan |
祝枝弟 Zhu Zhidi |
叶向荣 Ye Xiangrong |
徐 珏 Xu Jue |
丁子霖 Ding Zilin |
蒋培坤 Jiang Peikun |
张先玲 Zhang Xianling |
王范地 Wang Fandi |
周淑庄 Zhou Shuzhuang |
李雪文 Li Xuewen |
钱普泰 Qian Putai |
吴定富 Wu Dingfu |
宋秀玲 Song Xiuling |
孙承康 Sun Chengkang |
于 清 Yu Qing |
孙 宁 Sun Ning |
黄金平 Huang Jinping |
孟淑英 Meng Shuying |
袁淑敏 Yuan Shumin |
王广明 Wang Guangming |
刘梅花 Liu Meihua |
谢京花 Xie Jinghua |
马雪琴 Ma Xueqin |
邝瑞荣 Kuang Ruirong |
张树森 Zhang Shusen |
杨大榕 Yang Darong |
贺田凤 He Tianfeng |
刘秀臣 Liu Xiuchen |
沈桂芳 Shen Guifang |
谢京荣 Xie Jingrong |
金贞玉 Jin Zhenyu |
要福荣 Yao Furong |
孟淑珍 Meng Shuzhen |
田淑玲 Tian Shuling |
邵秋风 Shao Qiufeng |
王桂荣 Wang Guirong |
谭汉凤 Tan Hanfeng |
孙恒尧 Sun Hengyao |
王文华 Wang Wenhua |
陈 梅 Chen Mei |
周 燕 Zhou Yan |
李桂英 Li Guiying |
徐宝艳 Xu Baoyan |
狄孟奇 Di Mengqi |
王 连 Wang Lian |
管卫东 Guan Weidong |
高 婕 Gao Jie |
刘淑琴 Liu Shuqin |
王双兰 Wang Shuanglan |
孙珊萍 Sun Shanping |
张振霞 Zhang Zhenxia |
刘天媛 Liu Tianyuan |
黄定英 Huang Dingying |
熊 辉 Xiong Hui |
张彩凤 Zhang Caifeng |
何瑞田 He Ruitian |
任金宝 Ren Jinbao |
田维炎 Tian Weiyan |
杨志玉 Yang Zhiyu |
李显远 Li Xianyuan |
王玉芹 Wang Yuqin |
韩淑香 Han Shuxiang |
曹长先 Cao Changxian |
方 政 Fang Zheng |
齐志勇 Qi Zhiyong |
冯友祥 Feng Youxiang |
何兴才 He Xingcai |
刘仁安 Liu Renan |
齐国香 Qi Guoxiang |
韩国刚 Han Guogang |
石 峰 Shi Feng |
庞梅清 Pang Meiqing |
黄 宁 Huang Ning |
王伯冬 Wang Bodong |
张志强 Zhang Zhiqiang |
赵金锁 Zhao Jinsuo |
孔维真 Kong Weizhen |
刘保东 Liu Baodong |
陆玉宝 Lu Yubao |
齐志英 Qi Zhiying |
方桂珍 Fang Guizhen |
雷 勇 Lei Yong |
肖书兰 Xiao Shulan |
葛桂荣 Ge Guirong |
郑秀村 Zheng Xiucun |
王惠蓉 Wang Huirong |
邢承礼 Xing Chengli |
桂德兰 Gui Delan |
王运启 Wang Yunqi |
黄雪芬 Huang Xuefen |
郭达显 Guo Daxian |
王 琳 Wang Lin |
刘 乾 Liu Qian |
朱镜蓉 Zhu Jingrong |
金亚喜 Jin Yaxi |
周国林 Zhou Guolin |
穆怀兰 Mu Huailan |
王争强 Wang Zhengqiang |
宁书平 Ning Shuping |
曹云兰 Cao Yunlan |
隋立松 Sui Lisong |
林武云 Lin Wuyun |
冯淑兰 Feng Shulan |
付媛媛 Fu Yuanyuan |
孙淑芳 Sun Shufang |
李春山 Li Chunshan |
蒋艳琴 Jiang Yanqin |
何凤亭 He Fengting |
谭淑琴 Tan Shuqin |
奚永顺 Xi Yongshun |
肖宗友 Xiao Zongyou |
乔秀兰 Qiao Xiulan |
陆燕京 Lu yanjing |
李浩泉 Li Haoquan |
赖运迪 Lai Yundi |
周小姣 Zhou Xiaojiao |
周运姣 Zhou Yunjiao |
陈永朝 Chen Yongchao |
陈永邦 Chen Yongbang |
刘永亮 LiuYongliang |
张景利 Zhang Jingli |
孙海文 Sun Haiwen |
王海林 Wang Hailin |
陆三宝 Lu Sanbao |
As suggested by members of victims’ families, the names of our deceased group members who have been signatories over the years are also listed below to honor their unfulfilled wish:
吴学汉 Wu Xuehan |
苏冰娴 Su Bingxian |
姚瑞生 Yao Ruisheng |
杨世钰 Yang Shiyu |
袁长录 Yuan Changlu |
周淑珍 Zhou Shuzhen |
王国先 Wang Guoxian |
包玉田 Bao Yutian |
林景培 Lin Jingpei |
寇玉生 Kou Yusheng |
孟金秀 Meng Jinxiu |
张俊生 Zhang Junsheng |
吴守琴 Wu Shouqin |
周治刚 Zhou Zhigang |
孙秀芝 Sun Xiuzhi |
罗 让 Luo Rang |
严光汉 Yan Guanghan |
李贞英 Li Zhenying |
邝涤清 Kuang Diqing |
段宏炳 Duan Hongbing |
刘春林 Liu Chunlin |
张耀祖 Zhang Yaozu |
李淑娟 Li Shujuan |
杨银山 Yang Yinshan |
王培靖 Wang Peijing |
袁可志 Yuan Kezhi |
潘木治 Pan Muzhi |
萧昌宜 Xiao Changyi |
轧伟林 Ya Weilin |
刘建兰 Liu Jianlan |
索秀女 Suo Xiunü |
杨子明 Yang Ziming |
程淑珍 Cheng Shuzhen |
杜东旭 Du Dongxu |
张桂荣 Zhang Guirong |
赵廷杰 Zhao Tingjie |
陆马生 Lu Masheng |
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Written by Ding Zilin and Jiang Peikun
based on discussion among members of Tiananmen Mothers
[1] In March 2004, Ding Zilin and two other members of the Tiananmen Mothers were detained and held for several days for attempting to bring into China T-shirts printed with the logo of “1989-2004: Tiananmen Mothers.”
June Fourth at 25
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