Chinese government is trying to prevent commemoration of the 1989 massacre in Beijing by means of an unprecedented wave of persecution

The Chinese government is trying to suppress any commemorations for the victims of the massacre of Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 3 and 4, 1989, with an unprecedented wave of intimidation and arrests – according to a freshly published twelve-page memorandum in German language, in which the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) focuses on the measures of the Chinese authorities against civil rights advocates shortly before the 25th anniversary of the massacre . "China's government is still not prepared to live up to the responsibility - not even after a quarter of a century of tabooing, criminalization and mockery of the victims," criticized Ulrich Delius, the STP's Asia-consultant in Göttingen on Tuesday. "The officially prescribed memory loss in China is an indictment for the world power. A unique chance for reconciliation is wasted, although this would be exactly what the divided and deeply traumatized country needs."

In the memorandum, the STP lists dozens of arrests and intimidations of human rights advocates, professors, journalists, writers, artists and human rights activists, initiated by the Chinese government in order to prevent any public commemorations of the victims of the massacre. The memorandum also documents how Chinese civil rights activists still investigate the fate of the victims, regardless of the state persecution, showing that their concerns are still highly relevant in modern China. Thus, apart from demands for democratization, the protests of 1989 were also focused on measures against corruption, abuse of power and state arbitrariness.

"Even today, the Chinese government does not hesitate to draw on drastic methods of the Mao era, such as locking up critics or humiliating and degrading them in public," said Delius. "The systematic violations of the Anti-Torture Convention and Chinese legal provisions on the prohibition of torture are a serious setback for all efforts to establish a rule of law." In April and May of 2014, imprisoned civil rights activists were forced to confess their "crimes" on state TV before the regular court proceedings. They were not allowed to consult their lawyers.

The STP also criticizes the ongoing impunity in China in connection with the taboo nature of the massacre. "The brutal crackdown of the mostly peaceful protests was a crime against humanity – and those who are responsible must finally be brought to justice," said Delius. But the government censors leave no stone unturned in trying to delete even the most remote references to the crime or the concerns of the protesters from the internet. Dozens of keywords, names and websites are blocked. Even number combinations based on the date of the massacre are considered suspect and are thus deleted.

Here you can download our Memorandum (only available in German)

Ulrich Delius, head of STP's Asia department, is available for further questions: +49 551 49906 27 or asien@gfbv.de.