Beijing yesterday marked 30 years since the Tiananmen Square Massacre with a wall of silence and extra security.
Police checked the identification cards of every tourist and commuter leaving the subway near Tiananmen Square, the site of the pro-democracy protests that were brutally extinguished by tanks and soldiers on June 3 and 4, 1989.
Foreign journalists were not allowed onto the square at all or warned by police not to take pictures.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Officials told one reporter that “illegal media behavior” could affect visa renewals.
Meanwhile, Washington marked the occasion by hailing the “heroic” movement of 1989.
The Chinese Communist Party detained several pro-democracy advocates in the run-up to yesterday, while popular livestreaming sites conspicuously shut down for “technical” maintenance.
Searches for the term “Tiananmen” on the Sina Weibo platform yesterday displayed the official logo of the 70th anniversary of the founding of communist China.
Over the years, the party has censored any discussion of the protests and crackdown, which left hundreds, possibly more than 1,000 people, dead — ensuring that people either never learn about what happened or fear to discuss it.
The party and its high-tech police apparatus have tightened control over civil society since Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) took office, rounding up pro-democracy advocates, rights lawyers and even Marxist students who sympathized with labor movements.
Countless surveillance cameras are perched on lampposts in and around Tiananmen Square.
“It’s not that we don’t care. We know what happened,” said a Didi Chuxing driver. “But how can I tell you when the DiDi Chuxing app is recording our conversation?”
“Today’s China has changed,” he added. “If you have money, you have everything. Without money, you dare not open your mouth.”
It was largely business as usual at Tiananmen yesterday: Hundreds of people, including children waving small Chinese flags while sitting on their parents’ shoulders, lined up to watch the daily flag-raising.
However, the line moved slowly due to extra security, with identification cards matched on facial recognition screens.
When asked whether it occurred to her that she was visiting the square on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a nursing school graduate in her 20s from eastern Shandong Province said: “What do you mean? No, it didn’t cross my mind.”
Her mother added: “We don’t think of that past.”
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS