China must finally pardon the imprisoned survivors of the massacre

On the occasion of the 27th anniversary of the massacre on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demands China to pardon the imprisoned survivors of the massacre. “At least 20 democracy activists who tried to confront the tanks 27 years ago are in prison again,” said Ulrich Delius, the STP’s Asia consultant, in Göttingen on Friday. Further, he recalled the fate of journalist Gao Yu. In November 2015, the former employee of the Deutsche Welle had been released due to serious health problems – but the authorities have since kept her from traveling to Germany. After the massacre, she had been kept in prison for six years. Recently, she had fallen out of favor again and was sentenced to seven years in prison in an unfair trial.

The STP also criticized that the Chinese security forces continued to harass family members of the victims of the massacre and human rights defenders who want to commemorate the victims of the massacre. Prior to the anniversary, the police had enforced house arrests for Chinese human rights activists who planned to publicly commemorate the victims. Last weekend, three of seven activists who – in Beijing – had publicly prayed for the victims of the massacre were arrested – and the security agencies decided to send other human rights defenders on “forced holidays” to ensure that they will not participate in commemorative events. For example, the police ordered human rights advocate Han Liang, who lives in Chongqing, to pay a visit to the countryside. 

Yang Tongyan, a writer, is one of the imprisoned veterans of the democratic movement. After the massacre, he had to serve a ten-year prison sentence. In 2006, he was dragged to court once again, and was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment – until 2018. Other imprisoned activists who are now in prison for political reasons once again – after having served their prison sentences following the Tiananmen massacre – are Liu Xiaobo, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, human rights activists Chen Wei, and democracy activist Xie Changfa. 

On June 4, 1989, more than 200 people had been killed in a violent crackdown on protests of the democracy movement at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and thousands of government critics had been arrested throughout the country.

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