Resist Transnational Repression, Defy Totalitarianism

On June 4th 1989, student-led demonstrations which had been brewing across China for a few months were violently crushed by the Chinese Communist Party who declared martial law and sent their troops onto the streets of Beijing to end the protests Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded. While the massacre has been downplayed and deleted from public record in China, it has been commemorated outside of China in the intervening years. Prior to 2020 the biggest Tiananmen Commemorations used to take place in Victoria Park in Hong Kong. However, after the introduction of the National Security Law on June 30th, 2020 and the subsequent CCP clamp down on democracy - any hint of remembrance has been rigorously stamped out and forbidden. In nearby Taiwan where freedom and democracy prevail, the Tiananmen Square Massacre is commemorated each year on June 4th. However, this year, even Taipei was not free from threat. A number of Taiwan’s news outlets reported that eight government offices, including the Presidential Office and Executive Yuan received bomb threats by email on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The messages warned of attacks if memorial events were held. Police traced the sender’s IP address to the U.S.but it is expected the real location was masked through a VPN and searches of government buildings did not yield any suspicious devices. Despite the threats and the inclement weather, the Tiananmen commemoration still went ahead in Taipei. According to local media, about 3,000 people gathered for a candlelight vigil organized by the New School for Democracy and other human rights groups. The event took place on Democracy Boulevard outside Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, with the theme "Resist Transnational Repression, Defy Totalitarianism." It featured brief speeches by human rights advocates from Taiwan, Tibet, China and Hong Kong, as well as other nations. This is our report from the event. #TiananmenSquare #TiananmenMassacre #June4thMassacre #1989Protests #BeijingMassacre #CCPViolence #TiananmenCrackdown #RememberJune4 #HumanRights #FreeSpeech #DemocracyNow #FreedomMatters #TransnationalRepression #StandWithHongKong #StandWithTaiwan #ChinaCensorship #NeverForgetTiananmen #HistoryPodcast #HumanRightsPodcast #ChinaPodcast #PoliticalPodcast #PodcastEpisode #TrueStoriesPodcast #FreedomOfSpeech