“Defending Democracy Against Authoritarian Expansion, Gathering Sparks to Uphold Freedom” — June 4th 34th Anniversary Memorial Vigil

Under the National Security Law, June 4th gatherings were banned in Hong Kong and Macau, and in the days beforehand the Hong Kong authorities detained large numbers of people who intended to commemorate the anniversary or were carrying related items. June 4th had become taboo in Hong Kong, leaving Taiwan the only place in the Chinese-speaking world where a commemoration could be held on June 4th freely, without suppression and with legal protection. That year, on the eve of the anniversary, the Hong Kong authorities also impounded the Pillar of Shame as evidence in a case of “inciting subversion of state power” — which is why the vigil was built around the themes of restoring the Pillar of Shame and “defending democracy against authoritarian expansion, gathering sparks to uphold freedom.”

Programme

Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt spoke by video link, and exiled Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong, domestic human rights groups, and democracy organizations at home and abroad gave short remarks. Taiwanese White Terror survivors Tsai Kun-lin and Chen Chin-hsing (陳欽生), pianist Ai Wen (艾文), and chair Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元) offered songs of mourning. Remarks from the Tiananmen Mothers were read aloud, and at 8:09pm everyone watching the livestream was invited to light a candle and observe 64 seconds of silence in tribute to those killed.

June 4th witness Wu Renhua argued that June 4th belongs alongside Taiwan’s 228 Incident, South Korea’s Gwangju Uprising and Czechoslovakia’s Prague Spring — grave violations of human rights that transcend borders and ethnicity. With open commemoration now impossible in both China and Hong Kong, and Taiwan having completed its democratic transition, marking June 4th is precisely how a democratized Taiwan affirms the value of human rights.

Exiled Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong spoke on stage wearing a shirt printed with “June 4th,” quoting Thucydides — “the secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage” — and relaying that his friend, the Hong Kong performance artist Sanmu Chen, had been arrested by nearly 30 police officers the previous evening while performing in Causeway Bay, shouting as he was taken away: “Don’t forget June 4th, Hong Kongers, don’t be afraid!” He urged everyone to share the news so the world would see how the Hong Kong government treats its artists.

Shih Yi-hsiang, Secretary-General of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, called on the public to stand with Fu Cha (Li Yanhe), the editor-in-chief of Gūsa Publishing detained in China, to remember June 4th and to hold China to account. Lee Ming-che, the NGO worker previously imprisoned in China, noted that after 1989 the state’s control of society and suppression of speech grew steadily tighter, and that only with Hong Kong’s 2019 anti-extradition movement did the world truly see how extreme the Chinese government’s methods had become: “We are a small country and a small people, but we are not willing to be the obedient subjects of your great power.”

A memorial ceremony was held that morning, and in the afternoon the organisation co-hosted the first Taiwan International Democratic Film Festival with the Asia Public Culture Association (亞洲公共文化協會), screening human rights films from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong — including a documentary on twenty years of Chinese human rights lawyers, Super Citizen Ko, and Blue Island — as a reminder of the danger that one-party rule poses to people’s freedom and safety.