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And so it begins: Tiananmen Square 2009
posted Wednesday, 3 June 2009
It was only a matter of time, but it looks like the Beijing sponsored suppression machine has gotten into gear in and begun locking people up in preparation of the anniversary of the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations.
Form the pen of Christopher Bodeen, journalist and China watcher.
China dissident held ahead of protest anniversary
A former Chinese political prisoner has been detained just days before the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, a human rights group said Tuesday.
Wu Gaoxing, a former educator in his late 60s, was detained Saturday at his home in the eastern city of Taizhou, shortly after the publication of a letter he had co-signed complaining about economic discrimination against dissidents, the New York-based Human Rights in China said in a news release.
The letter, addressed to President Hu Jintao and other top communist leaders, said former political prisoners are unable to find steady jobs and are deprived of medical benefits and pensions.
"If we get sick, we can only wait to die, and all this just because 20 years ago we were sentenced for political reasons," said the letter. The human rights group published the letter online at Wu's request, and an English translation was posted on the group's Web site.
Calls to Wu's mobile phone were met with a message saying it had been turned off, while phones at Taizhou State Security Bureau rang unanswered.
Authorities have tightened surveillance over China's dissident community ahead of Thursday's anniversary of the military's crushing of the Tiananmen Square protests, in which possibly thousands of students, activists and ordinary citizens were killed.
The government has never allowed an independent investigation nor offered a full accounting of its actions, and the crackdown itself remains a taboo subject in Chinese society.
Wu was among hundreds detained or imprisoned in the crackdown and was given a two-year sentence for having organized support for the protesters.
Overseas monitoring groups estimate that 30 men remain in prison on charges relating to the protests.
The prisoners — then mostly young workers at the time — were jailed for burning army trucks, stealing equipment or attacking soldiers as the military advanced toward student-led protesters on Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing.
A former Chinese political prisoner has been detained just days before the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, a human rights group said Tuesday.
Wu Gaoxing, a former educator in his late 60s, was detained Saturday at his home in the eastern city of Taizhou, shortly after the publication of a letter he had co-signed complaining about economic discrimination against dissidents, the New York-based Human Rights in China said in a news release.
The letter, addressed to President Hu Jintao and other top communist leaders, said former political prisoners are unable to find steady jobs and are deprived of medical benefits and pensions.
"If we get sick, we can only wait to die, and all this just because 20 years ago we were sentenced for political reasons," said the letter. The human rights group published the letter online at Wu's request, and an English translation was posted on the group's Web site.
Calls to Wu's mobile phone were met with a message saying it had been turned off, while phones at Taizhou State Security Bureau rang unanswered.
Authorities have tightened surveillance over China's dissident community ahead of Thursday's anniversary of the military's crushing of the Tiananmen Square protests, in which possibly thousands of students, activists and ordinary citizens were killed.
The government has never allowed an independent investigation nor offered a full accounting of its actions, and the crackdown itself remains a taboo subject in Chinese society.
Wu was among hundreds detained or imprisoned in the crackdown and was given a two-year sentence for having organized support for the protesters.
Overseas monitoring groups estimate that 30 men remain in prison on charges relating to the protests.
The prisoners — then mostly young workers at the time — were jailed for burning army trucks, stealing equipment or attacking soldiers as the military advanced toward student-led protesters on Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing.
In all honesty, this has gone on so long that it's become embarrassing. It's gone beyond merely being shameful and wrong, and has actually gotten to the stage that it has actually become a national humiliation. Each year the Tiananmen anniversary roles around, and each year Beijing starts rounding up the usual suspects in the vain hope locking up the witnesses to their crimes will some how magically make said crimes vanish from the pages of history.
It's sad, it's pathetic, is embarrassing, and it's high time that Beijing dropped this childish act and set the record straight over what happened.
Of course, this isn't going to happen. At least not any time soon, but it would be nice if Beijing could for once approach the darker event of recent history in a sensible and correct manner. Oh, and maybe put a few people up before a firing squad for ordering Chinese troops to fire on Chinese citizens.
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