For the second consecutive year, Hong Kongers have been prohibited from holding a candlelit vigil in Victoria Park this evening on the grounds of COVID-19 “health concerns.” Held annually, the vigil remembers victims of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square Massacre, when peaceful democracy protesters were peppered with bullets and mowed down by armored personnel carriers in Beijing.
Prior to last year’s ban — also ostensibly due to COVID-19 safety concerns — Hong Kongers had held the vigil for three decades without interruption. Although some ignored last year’s ban and converged on Victoria Park, attendance was significantly lower than in previous years. Today’s commemorations are expected to be even more rigorously policed.
During the past few days, Hong Kong media have been reporting that more than 1,000 riot police would be deployed in and around Victoria Park to turn people away, while police presence across the territory would be beefed up. There are also reports that anyone who wears black clothing — the default color of Hong Kong’s democracy movement — or who holds a candle while outside, could run the risk of being arrested and charged for unauthorized assembly, and face a five-year custodial sentence.
Hong Kong’s puppet government has also emulated the cowardly practice of dictatorships the world over, cooking up a wafer-thin excuse to force a museum that commemorates the massacre to close down on the eve of the anniversary. The Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department initiated legal proceedings against the June 4th Museum on Tuesday for operating “without a license for places of public entertainment.”
Memo to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥): People do not visit a museum about a massacre for “entertainment.”
It might be that Hong Kongers, ever-resourceful, would find new ways to circumvent the restrictions and commemorate today’s anniversary, but however creative their actions, it would not be the same. The visual power of tens of thousands of candles illuminating the darkness of mainland China cannot be easily replicated through online memes or cloak-and-dagger gestures. Sadly, Hong Kong’s candlelit vigil will probably never happen again.
Who will keep the fires burning to remember the victims of the massacre that the Chinese Communist Party has, with its typical ruthless efficiency, comprehensively thrust down the memory hole? With the final flickering flames of freedom on the verge of being snuffed out in Hong Kong, Taiwan has become the the Chinese-speaking world’s last bastion of freedom.
It must be acknowledged that the connection to the massacre and empathy for its victims is certainly weaker here than in Hong Kong. Taiwan does hold annual commemorative events, yet they are typically on a much smaller scale. This is, to some extent, understandable. Taiwan was still negotiating the path toward democracy when the massacre took place, and mass protests were still a sensitive issue; consequently, knowledge about the massacre is not as deeply ingrained as it is in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has also historically acted as a shelter for Chinese political refugees in a way that was not possible for the more geographically distant Taiwan. Additionally, many Taiwanese, especially benshengren (本省人, people who came to Taiwan before World War II) feel disconnected from modern Chinese history and identify as Taiwanese, not Chinese.
Nevertheless, as the lights go out in Hong Kong, Taiwan must carry the torch for the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and help illuminate the plight of Hong Kongers, too. If Taiwanese wish to be fully accepted and respected by the international community, it is incumbent upon them to fully engage with the outside world and shine a light on atrocities, wherever they occur, for democracy dies in darkness.
Chinese actor Alan Yu (于朦朧) died after allegedly falling from a building in Beijing on Sept. 11. The actor’s mysterious death was tightly censored on Chinese social media, with discussions and doubts about the incident quickly erased. Even Hong Kong artist Daniel Chan’s (陳曉東) post questioning the truth about the case was automatically deleted, sparking concern among overseas Chinese-speaking communities about the dark culture and severe censorship in China’s entertainment industry. Yu had been under house arrest for days, and forced to drink with the rich and powerful before he died, reports said. He lost his life in this vicious
A recent trio of opinion articles in this newspaper reflects the growing anxiety surrounding Washington’s reported request for Taiwan to shift up to 50 percent of its semiconductor production abroad — a process likely to take 10 years, even under the most serious and coordinated effort. Simon H. Tang (湯先鈍) issued a sharp warning (“US trade threatens silicon shield,” Oct. 4, page 8), calling the move a threat to Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” which he argues deters aggression by making Taiwan indispensable. On the same day, Hsiao Hsi-huei (蕭錫惠) (“Responding to US semiconductor policy shift,” Oct. 4, page 8) focused on
George Santayana wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This article will help readers avoid repeating mistakes by examining four examples from the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forces and the Republic of China (ROC) forces that involved two city sieges and two island invasions. The city sieges compared are Changchun (May to October 1948) and Beiping (November 1948 to January 1949, renamed Beijing after its capture), and attempts to invade Kinmen (October 1949) and Hainan (April 1950). Comparing and contrasting these examples, we can learn how Taiwan may prevent a war with
In South Korea, the medical cosmetic industry is fiercely competitive and prices are low, attracting beauty enthusiasts from Taiwan. However, basic medical risks are often overlooked. While sharing a meal with friends recently, I heard one mention that his daughter would be going to South Korea for a cosmetic skincare procedure. I felt a twinge of unease at the time, but seeing as it was just a casual conversation among friends, I simply reminded him to prioritize safety. I never thought that, not long after, I would actually encounter a patient in my clinic with a similar situation. She had
RSS