CCP tries to erase memories of Tiananmen Square massacre: Report

Beijing [China]April 9 (ANI): Claiming that memories of the Tiananmen Square massacre continue to haunt the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), media reports say the party is trying to erase the memory of the ruthless political crackdown from public memory.

In December last year, Hong Kong authorities removed the “Pillar of Shame” – a landmark memorial to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, according to the Hong Kong Post.

The memorial was designed by Danish sculptor Jens Halshiot and symbolized the ruthless killings committed by the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in June 1989, when thousands of students gathered in central Beijing demanding democratic reform.

Chinese state television has intensified its propaganda by broadcasting images of violence perpetrated by these “counter-revolutionaries” against the PLA in various parts of the capital. However, the party is still unsure whether its propaganda has worked, the report said.

Over the years, the CCP has made many attempts to erase this incident from the public consciousness by creating a kind of “cultural amnesia,” the report said.

Textbooks of Chinese history rarely mention this incident and instead focus on historical incidents that reflect the experience of China falling victim to foreign subordination. Similarly, textbooks in Hong Kong first mention the 2004 massacre, but rule out any mention of the violent crackdown on the democratic movement or the fact that an unknown number of students, Beijing residents and soldiers were killed when the military moved to the city center. messages.

Every year, when the anniversary of the massacre is approaching, human rights activists are dispersed as usual, and the authorities make sure that this day passes like any other day.

Around 2019, pro-democracy activists held open candles. City pro-democracy activists saw the open celebration of the massacre as a sign of disobedience to the CCP and Beijing, which pulled muscles on the city’s residents. But in the last two years, citing the Covid-19 pandemic, authorities have banned any rallies.

After removing the “pillar of shame” a few days later, Linnan University in the city removed a sculpture of the Tiananmen Square massacre for the “common interest of the university community.” The Sculpture of Democracy was also removed from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Ironically, all of these authoritarian steps are taking place when China has carried out a high degree of repression in Hong Kong, in what was once an “oasis of freedom” in the desert of authoritarianism, the report said.

Although economic realities may have changed, in many ways, politically, things remained the same for the inhabitants of the mainland. In 1989, ordinary Chinese had no right to vote and could not freely criticize the government. Three decades later, the situation is the same, the report said, adding that the CCP’s heavy hand has gone beyond its borders to intimidate, threaten and sympathize with those who criticize its human rights repression and repression in Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong. (ANI)