Taiwan’s Lai says Tiananmen ‘will not disappear in torrent of history’
Al Jazeera
Tuesday marks 35 years since Chinese soldiers stormed the square and opening fire on peaceful protesters.
Taiwan President William Lai Ching-te has promised Beijing’s brutal 1989 crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square will not be forgotten, as Hong Kong deployed hundreds of police to keep an eye out for potential commemorative activities.
Tuesday marks 35 years since Chinese soldiers stormed the square where students and workers had set up camp for weeks, opening fire and killing hundreds, if not thousands, of people. An official death toll has never been released.
“The memory of June 4th will not disappear in the torrent of history,” Lai wrote in a statement on Facebook, adding that Taiwan, a democratic island claimed by Beijing, would “work hard to make this historical memory last forever”.
The Tiananmen Square protesters wanted political reform and were frustrated at the then-government’s handling of the economy and the growth of corruption. Party leaders dismissed them as “counter-revolutionaries” and after the crackdown, many of the protesters fled overseas.
In the years since, discussion of Tiananmen has become taboo on the mainland.
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