A mockery of the victims: Human rights activists recall the massacre at Tiananmen Square

On Thursday, while the massive military parade took place in Beijing, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) held a human rights vigil in front of the Chinese Embassy in Berlin to commemorate the victims of the massacre on Tiananmen Square in 1989. With a role-play, the STP emphasized the fact that the family members of the victims, the human rights activists and the democrats see the demonstration of power of China’s Communist Party as cynical and ignorant. The human rights activists dressed up as the Chinese President Xin Jinping, the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and as the Russian President Vladimir Putin, playing with crackling and flashing toy tanks on a car play mat.

“We are outraged about the fact that Schröder decided to take part in the military parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the victory over Japan together with Putin and the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir – who is wanted for genocide crimes – despite the fact that the victims of the massacre 25 years ago have no yet received justice,” criticized the STP’s China-expert, Ulrich Delius. “It is a shame that a German Social Democrat shows such a lack of instinct. This is inconsiderate of the Chinese democrats who got killed or went missing.” Delius is also concerned that the parade will stoke the tensions in East Asia, as many of the neighboring countries already see China’s highly armed troops and the new offensive military strategy as a threat. The STP has also issued several human rights reports documenting the serious war crimes the Japanese committed in China – and has repeatedly called for a formal apology.

In the course of the campaign, the STP also pointed out that ex-Chancellor Schröder, being a lawyer, should rather wok on behalf of the about 270 Chinese lawyers who were arbitrary detained during the last few weeks. Many Chinese Christians were arrested for taking part in peaceful protests against the destruction of Christian crosses and churches in Zhejiang province. At least 1,200 crosses were torn down from officially recognized churches since 2013. As a form of protest against this blatant violation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion in China, the STP erected a three-meter high red cross in front of the Chinese Embassy.