Net Alert

Despite the Communist Party of China’s efforts to erase the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests from public records, human rights groups and activists make efforts to commemorate the event. Every year, local Hong Kong pro-democracy groups organize marches and hold candlelit vigils at Victoria Park, Hong Kong. Similar memorials and vigils are held around the world.

Parents, relatives, and friends of victims of the military crackdown has formed a democracy activist group called the Tiananmen Mothers, urging the Chinese government to change their position over the suppression of the Tiananmen movement.

Artists and musicians from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have voiced some of the strongest supports for victims of the Tiananmen massacre and democracy movements in China. Since 1989, artists such as Beijing-based Chinese rock music pioneer Cui Jian, Hong Kong singer Anita Mui Yim-fong, and Taiwanese singer and songwriter Lo Ta-yu have written popular songs to commemorate the event.

Every year around the anniversary of June 4, Internet users in China make efforts to commemorate this the event despite heavy censorship. They use coded language, pictures and emojis of candles, cartoons of tanks and other images to remember the event and show compassion for victims of the brutal military crackdown.