China Bans Tiananmen Families From Visiting Graves

Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago Thursday, in a further tightening of a yearslong campaign to erase what happened from public memory.

• Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter told the AP. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution. Relatives from a group called Tiananmen Mothers visited the graves for more than 30 years, reading memorial statements while police kept watch, Amnesty International said.

• "It is deeply troubling that this year the suppression of Tiananmen commemoration appears to be escalating—reflecting the government's deep-seated insecurity about people's demands for accountability," said Amnesty deputy regional director Sarah Brooks.
• "For years the Chinese authorities have sought to erase the public's collective memory of the bloody events of 4 June 1989, but this latest prohibition is an attempt to stamp out even the personal memories of the victims' families," Brooks said. "This suggests an approach that is increasingly hardline and devoid of compassion. To continually deny the truth about the Tiananmen crackdown is abhorrent; but to deny relatives the ability to mourn their dead shows another level of cruelty."
• Hundreds of people, and possibly thousands, were killed in 1989 as troops advanced through crowds that were trying to stop the military from reaching the protesters on Tiananmen Square, a vast plaza in the center of the Chinese capital. The decision by the Communist Party leadership to send in the military was a pivotal moment in China's modern history, determining that the market reforms that transformed the country into the world's second-largest economy would not be coupled with political liberalization.

• The US, the EU, and Britain posted messages on social media marking the anniversary. "No amount of censorship can erase the past," a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio read. "Those who sacrificed to uphold their unalienable rights of free expression and peaceful assembly will be vindicated someday." Rows of electronic candles lit up the windows of the US Consulate in Hong Kong.
• A number of US lawmakers, former student leaders from the 1989 movement, and their supporters gathered on Capitol Hill to commemorate the anniversary. Among them was Arthur Liu, father of the Olympic figure skating champion Alysa Liu and a former student leader. He urged the public to remember the movement and not to forget those who are still in jail for their pro-democracy activism stemming from the Tiananmen days.
• Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning attacked Rubio's statement, accusing the US of "distorting historical facts" and "smearing China's political system," reports Reuters. She said the US was meddling in China's internal affairs "on the pretext" of human rights.