Tiananmen Memorial in Taiwan Takes On Extra Significance

TaiwanPlus News

Taiwan marked the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown with vigils honoring those killed when Chinese troops opened fire on student democracy protesters in 1989. With commemorations now banned in China and Hong Kong, Taiwan says it is keeping the flame alive, standing as a beacon for freedom in opposition to Beijing's authoritarianism.

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00:00Remembering those who died in pursuit of democracy.

00:03In the centre of Taipei, hundreds gather to commemorate the 36th anniversary of Tiananmen

00:08Square.

00:09Also known by its date, June 4th, that day, a democracy movement in China was brutally

00:14oppressed by Chinese soldiers, opening fire on crowds.

00:30However, over the last few years, the Chinese Communist Party had destroyed this memory.

00:37Just to celebrate the 6th anniversary, and hope that China can be a民族.

00:41Because I think that the freedom of democracy is a secular value.

00:44So we should celebrate the world in the world to win this value.

00:50I think that the 6th anniversary of the 6th anniversary of the 6th anniversary of the 6th anniversary,

00:57in Japan or in China.

01:01And I think that the whole world should be the same.

01:05Because the people, the freedom, and the people, are no foreign.

01:12Taiwan is now the only place in the Chinese-speaking world with large public vigils commemorating Tiananmen Square.

01:18Every year, hundreds of people gather here, in the heart of the capital Taipei, to mark the

01:23anniversary of Beijing's brutal crackdown at Tiananmen Square.

01:27It's an event that's taking on added resonance in recent years, as commemorations like this

01:32are still taboo in mainland China, and now impossible in Hong Kong.

01:41For decades, Hong Kong's Victoria Park looked like this on June 4th.

01:45With as many as hundreds of thousands of people gathering to mark a date scratched from history

01:50just across the border in mainland China.

01:56But this year, even holding a white flower meant being taken away by national security police.

02:04A new normal here after Beijing cracked down on the once semi-autonomous territory

02:09after mass pro-democracy protests.

02:11And for the first time in Taiwan, Hong Kongers-in-Exile held their own vigil here.

02:22From the Hong Kong Wai-dor-Li-A公園, to the Taipei 228-和平公園.

02:28This means that the Hong Kong people, regardless of which they live in any place,

02:31they won't forget the people of the people of the Communist Party who killed the people.

02:36Memorials here in Taiwan take place as China ups its pressure over the island nation

02:41to accept its claims of sovereignty, sending military boats and planes around the island

02:45but also using so-called grey zone warfare tactics like cyber attacks and disinformation.

02:52Organisers and government officials pushing ahead with memorials despite bomb threats

02:56for commemorating one of the darkest chapters in modern Chinese history.

02:59It shows Taiwan's value. It shows the difference between Taiwan and China.

03:07When people use this kind of a ceremony to memorize the Tiananmen incident.

03:16When the international society shows this message, it means Chinese government,

03:22they also need to know the world is watching them.

03:27For many people here in Taiwan, remembering Tiananmen is not just about the past.

03:32It's about the present and future threats to this democracy by China.

03:37In a world where authoritarianism is expanding, this island democracy wants to carry the torch.

03:43Not only for those who died in Beijing nearly four decades ago,

03:46but for those whose freedom is under threat today.

03:50Scott Huang, Hank Hsu, Andy Schwer and Rick Lowert in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.

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