Resisting Transnational Repression, Opposing Authoritarian Expansion
Welcome to this vigil marking the 36th anniversary of the June 4th massacre. This year we gathered in Taiwan under the theme “Resisting Transnational Repression, Opposing Authoritarian Expansion,” joined by more than three thousand people who braved the weather to stand together. Tonight we mourned not only the young lives sacrificed at Tiananmen Square in 1989 in pursuit of democracy and freedom, but also showed the world our determination to refuse to forget.
Some may ask why, 36 years on, we keep talking about this history. Because for us, to remember is itself an act of resistance against authoritarianism.
As June 4th witness Wu Renhua has said, the struggle between people and power is, at its core, a struggle between memory and forgetting. Here we firmly reaffirm the Tiananmen Mothers’ three demands — truth, compensation, and accountability — and call on the Chinese Communist Party to establish a commission of inquiry to address this bloodstained history through a fair legal process.
June 4th Has Never Been Past Tense
Just days before this event, the organizers even received an anonymous threat claiming a bomb would be planted — which only confirms that the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal instinct to erase the truth and intimidate has never changed. Several speakers reminded us that June 4th has never been in the past tense — it is happening now.
The Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian repression has already expanded to cultural brainwashing and genocide against Tibetans and Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and has thoroughly destroyed freedom in Hong Kong. Victoria Park, once the site of the world’s largest June 4th commemoration, can no longer light candles because of the National Security Law.
Holding the Line for Democracy: Taiwan’s Mission
Precisely because of this, it matters all the more that we hold this vigil here in Taiwan, on this land of democracy and freedom. As Asia’s “beacon of human rights,” we bring together every community oppressed by the Chinese Communist Party. As the CCP works to export surveillance and fear worldwide through “transnational repression,” targeting overseas campuses and societies, we strongly urge that Taiwan must never entertain any compromise with, or illusions about, the CCP regime.
We must also heed the call of UMC founder Robert Tsao to remember that “sovereignty resides with the people,” and to make use of democratic tools such as recall elections to root out authoritarian infiltration within Taiwan and defend our national sovereignty.
Tonight, we are not only looking back at past suffering — we are standing together for the future of democracy. We pledge to keep carrying forward the spirit of June 4th, to hold the line for Taiwan’s democracy, until justice is done, authoritarian rule collapses, and the light of freedom reaches every corner. Thank you to everyone who stood with us tonight!