Chinese Police Crack Down on Tiananmen Square on 20th Anniversary

by Rob Walker | June 4, 2009 at 06:08 am

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Twenty years after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre Chinese authorities were taking no chances, as plainclothes and uniformed police outnumbered the tourists in Beijing's main square.

Online social media sites have been blocked and people were being arrested and pulled into cars at Tiananmen Square as China attempts to squelch any dissident discussion of the event.

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Except the foreign journalist agitators, Tiananmen Square open to everyone today - June 04, 2009

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sourced by Jarrett Martineau

Except the foreign journalist agitators, Tiananmen Square open to everyone today - June 04, 2009

In London, survivors of the massacre laid flowers outside the Chinese embassy as human rights organisation Amnesty International called for a Chinese inquiry into the massacre, in which hundreds, possibly thousands of people were killed.

"There must be some misunderstanding!" the man was yelling in Mandarin. "There's no misunderstanding," a policeman shouted back. "Get in the car!"
Suddenly about 20 men, who moments before had seemed like tourists, began converging on the scene. They were all packing walkie talkies: undercover policemen.

The demonstration was to remember those killed when Chinese troops crushed a pro-democracy protest on 4 June 1989.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International called on the Chinese to hold an inquiry into what happened.

NHK TV news showed all calm and only police check points for security searching for Bombs and other possible terror threats.

Other then that from the footage on TV, every one seems to be able to enter and exit.

The reporter did not mentioned any confrontations nor any Police abuses of force. That is all NHK is saying so far.

all new media, including CNN and BBC are being prevented from reporting from Tiananmen Square. Secret police are covering video cameras with umbrellas! Tourists are being allowed into the square but anyone trying to make a reoprt is asked to leave.

America requested details of all those killed during the Tiananmen Sq protests but the Chinese have refused calling it an internal affair.

In stark contrast to the mass killing of Chinese by their own government, also on Jun 4, 1989 the end of communism began in Poland and within a month a new government was installed leading to a modern democratic Poland without a single shot fired, or a single Pole killed!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO ACTIVISTS LAUNCH NEW WEBSITE

“TIANANMEN+20: WHAT THE CONSCIENCE REMEMBERS”

TORONTO, June 4, 2009—Toronto human rights activists mark the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in Beijing by launching a new website aimed at empowering ordinary people to tell their stories and answer the question: “Where were you when the tanks rolled in? Where were you on June 4, 1989?”

“This Tiananmen+20 project helps us achieve two goals,” says Cheuk Kwan, chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China and organizer of today’s memorial event at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square at noon.

“It gets people of all ages to remember what happened at Tiananmen Square 20 years ago and empowers them to share their stories about the human rights struggle in China,” says Kwan. “And, in doing so, it brings many of those memories from the pre-digital age onto the Internet, where they are more accessible to younger generations.”

The global public is invited to share there stories via the website at www.tiananmenplus20.org, where they can see text and photos and video statements by other participants in the “Where Were You?” section, as well as hear stories from Tiananmen Square, with current contributions from former Chinese student leaders Wang Dan and Cai Chongguo, former Beijing resident and activist Sheng Xue and former Canadian journalist Shelley Fines.

“This project is meaningful on many levels and goes beyond our annual memorial events,” says Dick Chan. “It reaches out across the globe and through the generations, asking people to remember and, hopefully, become part of the struggle for human rights in China.”

Even as China moves this week to block out any memory of the massacre, by arresting and issuing warnings to dissidents and Chinese citizens and shutting down popular Internet sites, www.tiananmenplus20.org will continue past the anniversary to collect a people’s history of the Tiananmen democracy movement.

“Twenty years ago, the Chinese students held peaceful demonstrations in the belief that they could contribute to building a better society and government in China, only to have their dreams destroyed in the bloodshed of Tianamen Square,” says Brad Lee, content developer for www.tiananmenplus20.org, who was studying in Shanghai during the 1989 democracy movement.

“Since then, many have left China to immigrate to other countries. This website empowers them and others to share their memories of Tiananmen and to learn from history,” Lee added.

Visitors to www.tiananmenplus20.org can make their own story contributions by clicking on the “Where Were You?” section of the website, or send an e-mail to info@tiananmen20.com. Text, photos and videos are accepted.

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