Taipei Tiananmen vigil urges Beijing to respect human rights

More than 1,000 people gathered on Tuesday in Taiwan’s capital Taipei to commemorate the victims of China’s violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protest in 1989, urging the Beijing regime to stop trampling on human rights.

The 35th anniversary candlelight vigil for the June 4, 1989, tragedy on Tuesday was held in central Taipei with the theme “Ideals are bulletproof.”

Participants included ordinary Taiwanese residents, rights activists supporting Tibet and China’s oppressed Uighur Muslim minority, exiled Chinese pro-democracy dissidents and Hong Kongers who have fled to Taiwan in recent years after Beijing tightened its control on the former British colony.

68-year-old Wu Renhua, who witnessed the 1989 bloodbath on Beijing’s central Tiananmen Square and now lives in Taipei, told the crowd how he and students were forcibly driven out by tanks on that horrible day.

“When I returned to the campus and saw the bodies that had been run over by tanks … I swore that I’ll never forget it,” Wu told the crowd.

From mid-April 1989, tens of thousands of student-led demonstrators had demanded democracy and government reforms on Tiananmen Square. The protest ended in a bloodbath, a subject that remains taboo in China, even decades on.

At the vigil in Taipei, participants held small electric candles and observed 64 seconds of silence at 8:09 pm (1209 GMT).

A 13-year-old student living in Taipei told dpa that he was very curious about the events when he saw the now historic photos of the Tank Man, the solitary figure standing in the path of the approaching tanks during the pro-democracy protests in 1989.

“It’s absurd that I could not find any information about it if I go to websites set up in China. It shows that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has refused to face history,” YM Liu told dpa.

“Back then, the CCP bureaucracy was moving towards the restoration of capitalism, so it cruelly suppressed workers and youth,” Sam Hung, a 30-year-old Taiwanese man from the International Socialist Alternative, told dpa.

Earlier on Tuesday, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, posted on the social media platform X in English: “On the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident, we commemorate the students and citizens who bravely marched for change.

“As Taiwan deepens our commitment towards human rights, we firmly stand by the belief that the people only truly flourish with freedom and democracy.”

On Facebook, Lai said in a post written in Chinese that a truly respectable country is one that allows its citizens to express their opinions.

Tseng Chien-yuan of the New School for Democracy, which co-organized the vigil, told dpa that it was a pity that Taiwan’s leader only commented on the tragedy on personal social media platforms.

“Taiwan should continue to strengthen its democracy … [it] will play a key role in sharing Taiwan’s experience of promoting human rights and democracy to Chinese people inside China, enabling them to oppose the CCP’s dictatorship,” Tseng told dpa.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the top body responsible for China affairs, called on the Beijing authorities late Monday to have the courage to face the historical facts of the June 4 incident and adopt a softer and more open attitude to accommodate different opinions.

Meanwhile, an art exhibition themed on the pursuit of human rights and democracy in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan was being held in Taipei to commemorate the violent crackdown in 1989. It is scheduled to run until June 13.