Fu Tong (湯偉雄) and his wife, Elaine To (杜依蘭), were among the first demonstrators in Hong Kong to be charged with rioting in 2020, after pro-democracy and anti-China protests started in 2019.
After leaving for Taiwan, Fu continued his activism and is now preparing to mark the anniversary of Beijing’s bloody crackdown on protesters in and around Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Fu has cohosted a Hong Kong human rights exhibition in Taipei, showcasing artwork from the protest movement, and leads guided tours of the displays.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
“When Hong Kong can no longer hold the June 4 vigils, and can no longer even mention it, Taiwan’s existence becomes very important,” 43-year-old Fu said.
“It’s one of the very few places in Asia where people can openly commemorate the incident on June 4, discuss it and even condemn the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]. The existence of such a space is already hugely significant,” he said.
Taiwan is the only part of the Chinese-speaking world where June 4 can be remembered openly, although Chinese communities in the US, the UK, Australia and other Western countries also mark it.
In Hong Kong, a national security law has outlawed such events, which previously drew tens of thousands of people.
Fu said he remains committed to advocating for Hong Kong’s issues and the values of freedom.
“I really feel like I have been chosen to be in this era. If I do not step up to do things that seem foolish and unrewarding, then who will? As long as I can, I am willing to keep going,” he said.
Before dawn on June 4, 1989, Chinese tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square, crushing weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations by students and workers.
China has never provided a full death toll, but rights groups and witnesses say the figure could run into thousands. Public discussion of what happened is taboo in China, which blamed the protests on counter-revolutionaries seeking to overthrow the CCP.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS