Taipei, Jun 5 (EFE).- More than 6,000 people gathered in the center of Taipei to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the highest number in the last 10 years, amid growing pressure from China on the island, event organizers reported Wednesday.
Tseng Chien-yuan, executive director of the New School for Democracy, which seeks to promote democracy in China, told state agency CNA that the increase in participation was due to China’s military maneuvers around Taiwan after the inauguration of President William Lai.
He spoke of recent protests in Taiwan due to the opposition’s approval in parliament of reforms that will give the legislature greater control over the government, which could hinder Lai’s government action and favor China.
“The number of Hong Kong people participating this year has also grown significantly. In addition to the groups of Hong Kongers in Taiwan, there were people who took a special flight from Hong Kong to Taiwan just to participate in the Jun. 4 commemorative party,” said Tseng, adding that in Hong Kong there is no longer “political space” to celebrate the anniversary.
With the advance of repression in Hong Kong territory, Taiwan has become the only Chinese-speaking place that remembers the Tiananmen massacre. Protesters gathered Tuesday afternoon in front of the Chiang Kai-shek mausoleum, a symbol of dictatorship that the island lived through for decades, to remember the victims of the massacre.
The vigil, in which LED candles were lit and a minute of silence was observed for the deceased, included the participation of human rights activists from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, who gave short speeches to the crowd.
The Tiananmen massacre occurred on the night of Jun. 3 to 4, 1989, when Chinese soldiers and tanks marched on the square in Beijing, where hundreds of thousands of students and workers had been demonstrating for weeks calling to end corruption and for political openness.
The death toll from the military repression is still unknown and ranges from hundreds to thousands, depending on the source. EFE
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