hirty years after they fled the bullets and tanks, Tiananmen exiles say their dream of returning to a democratic China are more distant than ever as their homeland descends further into authoritarianism and state surveillance.
Zhou Fengsuo has always erred on the side of optimism. Five years ago, to mark the 25th anniversary of Beijing’s deadly crackdown, he took advantage of a 72-hour transit visa to sneak back into China on his American passport.
It was an act that would be unthinkable now.
Under President Xi Jinping, China has returned to a level of oppression not seen since the Mao era, its security apparatus bolstered by cutting edge technology and the party’s ability to silence critics virtually unchallenged.
“There is no reason to be optimistic for China now if you look at what’s happening,” said Zhou, a former student leader who was number five on Beijing’s ‘Most Wanted’ list in the aftermath of the crackdown and who now lives in the US.
“It’s darkening day by day, (what) was unimaginable a year ago, now it’s becoming reality. Even ‘1984’, the novel, couldn’t go that far,” he said, referencing George Orwell’s seminal novel on life in a totalitarian state.
Most of those young protesters drawn to Beijing’s streets in the spring of 1989 are now in their early fifties and there is a profound sense of urgency that time is running out to keep alive the memory of what happened.
The ‘Great Firewall’ and eagle-eyed party censors have proven adept at scrubbing the web inside China of any reference to Tiananmen. And in more recent years university campuses in the West have witnessed increasingly strident nationalist rhetoric from overseas Chinese students.
“There is nothing to be optimistic about the younger generation at campus today, they grew up completely under the shadow of the firewall, so that means they are indoctrinated by the brainwashing when they are babies,” Zhou said.
Most of the politically active Tiananmen survivors have made their homes in the US, often after serving prison sentences and years spent persuading the Chinese authorities to give them passports.
Wuer Kaixi stayed closer, choosing the democratic island of Taiwan. Hailing from China’s Uighur minority—who now face unprecedented levels of forced incarceration and state surveillance in western Xinjiang province—Wu’er became one of the most outspoken student leaders during the 1989 protests.
He famously rebuked Premier Li Peng on national television, an unprecedented dressing down of a top party official, one who later went on to oversee the deadly crackdown.
Wuer said he had spent the last three decades watching with horror as western nations embraced China, hopeful that economic growth might nudge the party towards political liberalisation.
“They call it engagement, I call it appeasement, and that has led to the consequences that China is a clear threat to the world order and universal values,” he told AFP at the sidelines of a Tiananmen conference in Taipei. There is a sense of fatigue in his voice, that every June it has been up to a small coterie of survivors to remind the world of Tiananmen’s legacy.
In an illustration of China’s growing ability to counter dissidents, the conference which Wuer was attending used to be held in Hong Kong. But with the international finance hub witnessing its own crackdown, organisers moved it to Taipei.
Of the Tiananmen survivors AFP interviewed, Wang Dan remained the most optimistic. Like Wuer, he emerged one of the most prominent student leaders and was rewarded with being placed at the top of Beijing’s most wanted list. He spent four years behind bars before eventually making it the US.
He describes Xi as “a second Mao” but he takes solace from the fact that even Mao’s reign of repression came to an end.
Long term, Zhou also thinks China’s authoritarianism will fold, but it is not something he expects to see in his lifetime. “I believe history is on our side,” he said. “But I don’t know how long it will take, how many generations.” — AFP
Tweets
Twitter apologises for blocked China accounts
- Twitter Inc has apologised for suspending accounts critical of Chinese government policy days ahead of the 30th anniversary of a bloody crackdown on protesters at Tiananmen Square, after an outcry among users
- In a statement posted to the company’s Public Policy Twitter feed on Saturday, Twitter said “a number of accounts” had been suspended as part of efforts to target accounts engaging in “platform manipulation”
- “Some of these were involved in commentary about China. These accounts were not mass reported by the Chinese authorities. This was a routine action on our part,” the company said
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- Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe said on Sunday that the bloody crackdown on protesters around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square 30 years ago was the “correct” decision, citing the country’s “stability” since then
- Responding to a question at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore after a hardline speech about China and international security cooperation, he called the protests political “turbulence”
- “Throughout the 30 years, China under the Communist Party has undergone many changes. Do you think the government was wrong with the handling of June 4? There was a conclusion to that incident. The government was decisive in stopping the turbulence”
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2YZT1tO
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