“The ghosts of June 4th have not yet been laid to rest.”

Twenty-nine years ago tonight a huge invasion force entered into the city of Beijing under strict orders to clear Tiananmen Square by six a.m. on June 4. Remember Tak-man?


Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse brings us a documentary of the events that led up to June 3, 1989 and tells us that Secretary of State Pompeo today memorialized Tiananmen Square

Against the jousting backdrop of Chinese influence over North Korea; and remembering that U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is –right now– in Beijing discussing the future of U.S. and Chinese trade relations; and understanding that even mentioning the 1989 Tiananmen uprising/massacre is forbidden in China

Pompeo said,

On the 29th anniversary of the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, we remember the tragic loss of innocent lives.

As Liu Xiaobo wrote in his 2010 Nobel Peace Prize speech, delivered in absentia, “the ghosts of June 4th have not yet been laid to rest.”

We join others in the international community in urging the Chinese government to make a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing; to release those who have been jailed for striving to keep the memory of Tiananmen Square alive; and to end the continued harassment of demonstration participants and their families.

The United States views the protection of human rights as a fundamental duty of all countries, and we urge the Chinese government to respect the universal rights and fundamental freedoms of all citizens.

Read more here.

26th anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre

Harrison Jacobs writes in Business Insider,
A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Cangan Blvd. in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989. The man, calling for an end to the recent violence and bloodshed against pro-democracy demonstrators, was pulled away by bystanders, and the tanks continued on their way. The Chinese government crushed a student-led demonstration for democratic reform and against government corruption, killing hundreds, or perhaps thousands of demonstrators in the strongest anti-government protest since the 1949 revolution. Ironically, the name Tiananmen means "Gate of Heavenly Peace". (AP Photo/Jeff Widener)

Jacobs writes,

This Thursday, June 4, marks the 26th anniversary of the pro-democracy student protests that led to bloodshed in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

China has done its best to scrub the event from collective memory.

The country has already detained dozens of dissidents and activists ahead of the anniversary, even putting some "on vacation" with police, Radio Radio Free Asia reported. Meanwhile thousands rallied in Hong Kong last week to remember the victims from 1989.

Read more here.