Aftermath

"My son died for the future of China, thus I can only live for thefuture of China. I hope that there will be no more killings on thisland of tears, no more innocent people dying on the streets. This iswhy I have to wrap up my wound, wipe clean my tears, search one by onefor the victims and their family, and tell the world every bloody,tearful truth I found during my investigation."- Ding Zilin"When we are faced with atrocity, never close our eyes; when we areremembering past atrocity, never wipe it away from our memory. Thehistory of mankind against dictators, is a history of memory combatingforgetfulness…If crimes are forgotten, they will be repeated. I hopethat our fellow Chinese, who have been through so much sufferings andtragedies, can remember this."- Jiang Peikun In the weeks following the Tiananmen massacre,Chinese officials announces that hordes of "counter-revolutionaries"rampaged in Beijing and throughout China, and the government have beenjustified in forcefully ending the rebellion. Tens of thousands arearrested, many are imprisoned, and an unknown number are executed. Thegovernment states that "not one person" was killed in Tiananmen Squareand only 241 people died when PLA troops and "rioters" fought in thestreets. It is extremely difficult to estimate with any degree of accuracy thenumber of civilian casualties. Many of those were reportedly not takento hospitals. Moreover, under Martial Law, Beijing citizens areforbidden to speak to foreign journalists, and hospitals were underinstructions not to give out information concerning casualties.Amnesty International estimated 1,000 deaths. On the day of thecrackdown, unspecified sources at the Chinese Red Cross said that 2,600had died and 10,000 had been injured, although the organization laterdenied it. Much higher estimates of the casualties were also given inreports by Hong Kong magazine Zheng Ming (1 July 1989 p.10) and HongKong newspaper Wen Wei Po (6 June 1989). International ResponseGovernments all over the world have condemned the killing, includingthe U.S., the U.K., Japan, France, Australia, West Germany, thePhilippines, Mexico and South Africa. Visas for Chinese students areextended. Various diplomatic visits are cancelled. Government loans aresuspended.There are also some that support the CCP's decision to open fire, among them Vietnam, Cuba and East Germany.The European Union and United States place embargo on weapons sales tothe PRC. To this day it remains in place. The PRC has been calling fora lifting of the ban for many years and has had a varying amount ofsupport from members of the Council of the European Union. In early2004, France spearheaded a movement within the EU to lift the ban,without success.We will Remember In almost all the cities and towns where there are Chinese,  public memorial are held voluntarily.Tianjing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xian, Lanzhou, Changsha,Guangzhou, Changchun, Harbin and other big cities see huge crowds,mostly students, pouring into the streets to mourn the people who diein Beijing. They hold memorial services for days in protest. Half amillion people in Wuhan held a vigil on the Nanjing-Yangtze RiverBridge, blocking north-south railway traffic for several days. Studentsfrom Fudan University in Shanghai have been out on the streets forseveral days. Also in Shanghai, a train kills about 30 people who arelying on the track in protest; angry civilians set the train on fire.On 4 June, 100,000 people in Hong Kong held a vigil to mourn thevictims. They decide to start a campaign in which everybody writes oneletter to China to tell people about the truth. A similar publicmemorial site is set up in front of the Macao branch of Xinhua NewsAgency, and 10,000 people go there to mourn.Memorials are also held in many cities overseas, especially in Canada,America, Britain and France. In Tokyo, 20,000 Chinese demonstrate.To this day, yearly vigil and demonstrations are still being held allover the world, with the largest one held in Hong Kong. This year, thevigil in Hong Kong is still attended by over 150,000 people. The Search for Justice TiananmenMothers are the mothers and family members of the victims who werekilled or injured in the June Fourth Massacre in Beijing, China in 1989.After the massacre, they grouped together and have been trying togather information about the injured, the dead and the disappeared asevidence of crimes and violation of human rights by the Chinesegovernment.The demands of the group are:1. The right to mourn peacefully in public;2. The right to accept humanitarian aid from organizations and individuals inside and outside China;3. No more persecution of victims, including those injured in the shootings and the families of the dead;4. The release of all people still in prison for their role in the 1989 protests; and5. A full, public accounting for the shootingsThe Mothers have faced imprisonment, house-arrest, phone-tapping and constant surveillance.