On this day, 36 years ago, thousands of peaceful protesters were gunned down in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and in the streets and alleyways of China’s capital during a brutal crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests. Thousands more were massacred in cities across China. British diplomatic cables revealed that the death toll may have been as high as 10,000.
Last week, a group known as the Tiananmen Mothers – whose sons and daughters were killed, injured or jailed in 1989 – issued a statement calling for an independent investigation into the massacre.
“The bereaved will never forget,” they wrote. “This atrocity, engineered entirely by the government of the time, remains one of the darkest chapters in human history. The pain it has caused has never left – it is a nightmare that time cannot fade.”
Yet, as far as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is concerned, nothing happened on 4 June 1989. This was a day erased from history – no commemoration has ever been possible in mainland China.
Even in Hong Kong, the one city in China where memorials used to be held, candlelight vigils have been banned over the past five years. Hong Kong’s Catholic Church, which used to hold commemorative masses, has not done so for the past three years. Simply lighting a candle on this day can land you in jail for years.
Thirty-six years on, one might ask the question: what did the student movement in 1989 achieve? On the surface, nothing, except bloodshed, death and repression.
Over the past three decades, despite brief periods of relative relaxation and apparent opening, the rule of the CCP regime has become more repressive, and authoritarianism in China has intensified.
Over the past 13 years of Xi Jinping’s rule, in particular, China has been plunged into a new dark age of repression – in which we have seen the dismantling of Hong Kong’s once-celebrated and vibrant civil society, genocide of the Uyghurs, an acceleration of persecution of Christians and Falun Gong practitioners, and increased repression in Tibet.
In addition, we have seen more aggression towards Taiwan and more transnational repression against Beijing’s critics abroad, with China operating clandestine security outposts in places like New York and London to monitor and threaten Chinese activists abroad.
For too long, the free world has emboldened and facilitated the CCP’s repression. The decision by the US to award China “permanent normal trading status” (PNTR) and later “Most-Favoured Nation” (MFN) status in 2000, just over a decade after the slaughter, was wrong-headed.
Turning to the present day, there is a need for a wake-up call.
We should not have normal trading relations with a genocidal regime committing crimes against humanity and dire repression. Such a regime cannot be trusted.
Few sane voices would say we should disengage or stop all trade – that is not possible with such a vast market and such a strong power. No, the question before us is not whether to engage, but how – and on whose terms?
We should impose targeted sanctions on those responsible for the Uyghur genocide, but also for the dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms in violation of an international treaty, the Sino-British Joint Declaration, in which Beijing promised to uphold Hong Kong’s autonomy and liberty at least until 2047.
We should also demand the release of political prisoners. Any trade deals with China should be contingent on the release of media entrepreneur and British citizen Jimmy Lai, barrister Chow Hang-tung and all Hong Kong political prisoners. Ms Chow was jailed for organising candlelight vigils to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre (Chow had her conviction overturned, but is still behind bars over a separate subversion case) and one of the multiple charges against Lai was the crime of lighting a candle and saying a prayer at such a vigil, so their cases are symbolic on this anniversary.
But the international community must also step up efforts to demand the release citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, Christian pastor Wang Yi, Uyghur medical doctor Gulshan Abbas, dissident Dr Wang Bingzhang, who has been held for 23 years after being abducted from Vietnam, Tibet’s Panchen Lama and his relatives, and the thousands of prisoners of conscience across China.
On the surface, Beijing’s leaders seem emboldened. Even though China’s economic miracle appears to have waned, with its property bubble bursting and the opportunities for young people to find good jobs declining, nevertheless it appears on track to hit 5 per cent growth this year.
With its Belt and Road Initiative, despite failures and frustrations, China appears to have successfully entrapped many developing countries in its orbit, building an alliance of authoritarianism to counter the free world.
The turbulence over Donald Trump’s tariffs so far does not appear to have dented Xi Jinping’s grip on power – and may even have strengthened his hand in the short term.
Yet, there are two important things that the protesters in Tiananmen Square 36 years ago achieved, which we forget at our peril.
First, they showed that, when given the chance, the people of China want freedom – and many have made enormous personal sacrifices towards that goal. They are not beholden to the CCP. Even today, when I speak with Chinese friends privately, many of them indicate their desire to be free. And protests in recent years – notably the White Paper movement of 2022 – show that the lamp of freedom in China has not dimmed and will, periodically, emerge again.
Second, by peacefully protesting, the students in Tiananmen Square and around the country illustrated the stark contrast between their cause and character and the regime’s. Faced with peaceful protestors, the CCP sent in tanks and soldiers. They met placards and hunger strikers with guns and bullets. In so doing, they exposed to the world – not for the first time, and not for the last – their true nature.
Thirty-six years on, the regime has not changed. It continues its repression, cruelty, inhumanity, barbarity and criminality. The question is not whether China has changed. It is whether the free world has the courage to change its approach to China.
Will we put morals before mammon? Will we, who believe in freedom and human rights, finally wake up and stand up to the butchers of Beijing?
Benedict Rogers is Senior Director of Fortify Rights, co-founder of Hong Kong Watch, and author of The China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese Communist Party’s Tyranny
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