Hong Kongers had better keep their mouths shut.
Because commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre
is a threat to national security.
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
Today is June 4, 2022. A day when nobody commemorates anything...
because absolutely nothing happened here 33 years ago.
At least, that’s the new rule in Hong Kong.
As you may recall, in previous decades, Hong Kong was a terrible and chaotic place.
Hong Kongers were allowed to express all sorts of viewpoints—with
no regard for how their words might harm China’s national security.
And Hong Kong was the only part of China where you
could openly remember the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
They would hold candlelight vigils on the big soccer pitches in Victoria
Park. Every.
Single.
Year.
But in 2020, China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong. It was in
response to a year of protests against the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist Party.
And now in 2022, trying to commemorate Tiananmen Square could get you arrested.
For example, earlier this year, activist Chow Hang Tung was sentenced to 15 months in jail
for trying to organize a Tiananmen candlelight vigil in 2021.
That’s on top of her previous sentence for trying to organize a candlelight vigil in 2020.
What’s so wrong about organizing a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park?
Well you see, it’s because of Covid.
The judge explained that Chow had “ignored and belittled a genuine public health crisis”
and “wrongly and arrogantly believed in commemorating June 4
rather than protecting the health of the community.”
But how about this year?
Surely Covid isn’t still a threat to people gathering outside wearing masks?
Well, this week at a press briefing, a reporter asked Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam
whether it would be legal now to hold a Tiananmen vigil in Victoria Park.
She responded that “Any public activity in Hong Kong, regardless of the purpose,
has to fulfill the requirements in the law. As far as any gathering is concerned there
are a lot of legal requirements—there is the national security law, there is
the social distancing restrictions... and there is also a venue question.”
So she didn’t actually answer the question, or draw a red line for what is or is not legal.
She basically just said, you know, don’t gather in Victoria Park...
for reasons we’ll decide after we arrest you.
If that sounds menacingly vague, that’s exactly how the National Security Law is written.
Pretty much anything can be labeled a “threat to national security” if authorities say it is.
So why are Hong Kong authorities so against people commemorating
something that happened three decades ago? I’ll explain after the break.
Welcome back.
Why are Hong Kong authorities so adamant about stopping people
from commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre?
Because Hong Kong is now controlled by the Chinese Communust Party.
And the Party doesn’t want people to remember. It wants them to forget.
The reason is simple. The Chinese Communist Party is a lying liar who lies.
Mao Zedong and the Communist Party took over China in 1949 using a giant lie: That China in the past
was completely oppressive and feudalistic. And that the only way forward for China was
to allow the great, glorious Communist Party to take over. Therefore, no matter how many
landlords or counterrevolutionaries you have to kill, it’s ok. It’s for the sake of equality.
Equality never panned out. Not because it was hard to achieve.
But because they never intended it to begin with.
But after Mao Zedong died, Deng Xiaoping promised economic reforms.
Those reforms gave people hope that perhaps there could also be political reforms.
So in April of 1989, thousands of people gathered in Tiananmen Square to mourn
the death of Hu Yaobang—a former Chinese official who they thought of as a political reformer.
And that led to a two-month occupation of the square,
with people calling for the Communist Party to give them just a little more political freedom.
They weren’t calling for the Party to be overthrown. They wanted the Party to reform.
And you know what the Communist Party’s answer was. The June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre was
brutal. And even worse, it was caught on camera.
And the victims weren’t those Falun Gong,
or those Uyghur Muslims, or any of those “other” people.
The victims were everyday Chinese citizens.
The Tiananmen massacre demonstrated that no one, no one under the Chinese Communist Party is safe.
How can you believe in a brutal regime that kills its own citizens
like this for no reason? That’s pretty hard to do. And that’s why the Party needs everyone to forget.
Forget the killing. Instead,
you should *celebrate* the Communist Party! They bring peace and security.
And that’s the essence of it.
The Chinese Communist Party is terrified of people knowing what they’ve done.
So they will use the most brutal and even ludicrous methods to hide the truth.
And that spills over into Hong Kong as well—the
only part of China where they were still holding Tiananmen vigils every year.
The Hong Kong National Security Law in 2020 was designed to bring an end to a year of protests.
And it worked.
But as a side benefit, it also gave them an excuse to shut down all discussion of Tiananmen.
For example, in 2021,
authorities “temporarily” closed down Hong Kong’s June 4th museum over a supposed “licensing” issue.
Of course, the temporary closure became permanent. So organizers moved it online.
But then authorities blocked their website.
And then authorities deleted their digital records of the Tiananmen crackdown “under a
police order to close the [museum’s] website and social media accounts.”
And then finally, at the end of last year, the very last monuments to the
Tiananmen massacre in Hong Kong were dismantled. Like the Pillar of Shame.
The University of Hong Kong had it taken down in the middle of the night.
Because that’s what you do when you have nothing to hide.
The University’s press release the next morning cited “legal risks”.
After that happened, more Hong Kong universities removed their Tiananmen monuments.
Lingnan University removed this relief sculpture.
While the Chinese University of Hong Kong took down this Goddess of Democracy statue,
a replica of the one the students had built on Tiananmen Square.
They said they were removing an unauthorized statue.
While Lingnan University claimed their removal was also because of legal risks.
Yes, “legal risks”. The same vague legal risks you face
if you commemorate the Tiananmen massacre with a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park now.
Because police in Hong Kong are now operating like police in mainland China.
They’re so extreme that they once arrested 8 people for a
*silent* event where they just *stood there* and held up *blank* pieces of paper.
So clearly, no protest is safe.
Which is why it’s so brave that one Methodist church in Hong
Kong actually held a June 4 event earlier this week.
It’s especially gutsy because a lot of other churches have
dropped their Tiananmen tributes this year.
The Methodist church’s event poster said, “We pray that the Lord will treat our country
and people with kindness, bless us with peace, mend divisions, heal our wounds,
and let more people return to the kingdom of our Lord.”
Clearly, a subversive idea.
The brave reverend of that church, Yuen Tin-yau, will probably wind up in jail at
some point for that. But in the meantime, he told the South China Morning Post this week,
“I believe most Hongkongers will not forget [the June 4 crackdown].
It’s just that the way of commemorating may not be easy.”
He also said, speaking about the big candlelight vigil that’s now illegal,
“In the past two years, they cited pandemic reasons. But this year
they clearly stated that only football playing is allowed [at Victoria Park].”
Alright then, everyone. Let’s go to Victoria Park today to play football.
Wear plain clothes without any slogans, and say nothing.
Just kidding. The police will still arrest you.
Because even the slightest hint of calling out the Communist Party’s brutal past
is far too dangerous.
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from a viewer on Patreon.
That’s the crowdfunding website we use to raise money to support us and all our staff at China
Uncensored. Because we’re definitely not getting money from China. And one of the Patreon perks is
being able to ask me a question that I answer on the show.
Today’s question comes from...
Drottle: “Hey Chris and crew! Why do American elites want Xi out of power? Are the elites hoping
a new leader will make China and communism look more favorable to moderate Americans?”
Well, Drottle, a lot of American elites are very smart. So smart, that they’re actually stupid.
They see all the terrible things happening in China right now under Xi Jinping—militarization,
taking over Hong Kong, targeting US companies, etc. And they think,
“Boy, this Xi Jinping is a bad guy! Things were so much better under Jiang Zemin.
And that other guy I forgot.”
But actually, that’s idiotic.
Yes, there were what appeared to be golden years in China, in the 1990s and 2000s, when Westerners
could go in and make money. But that’s not because the Communist Party was *better* back then.
It’s because they wanted to steal our knowledge and intellectual property,
and use it to out-compete America. And they did it!
In just three decades, they’ve stolen almost every kind of American technology—from
wind turbines to weapons.
Enough that they no longer depend on us. And now, they don’t have to pretend to be nice to us.
Ever since the Communist Party took over China, their goal
has been to surpass and destroy the West. American elites may think they
want Xi Jinping out of power, but that will not magically make things better. It will
just lead to some new awful dictator, because the nature of the Communist Party hasn’t changed.
But American elites can be so greedy, it blinds them to reality. They still think they can make
money in China. Like investment firm BlackRock, which says we should triple down on China.
Whether Xi Jinping is in power, or the next guy, the Communist Party is not going to
change for the better. And BlackRock is not going to get their money back.
Thanks for your question, Drottle.
And thank you for watching. Learn more about how you can support this show by
going to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored. Contribute a dollar or more per episode—every little bit helps.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time.