Hong Kong online rallies to mourn the 9th anniversary of Li Wangyang’s death, poll shows 62% disagree that mourning for June 4 endangers national security

On Sunday, the ninth anniversary of the suspected “suicide” of former Chinese labor leader Li Wangyang, who was sentenced to prison for supporting the 1989 pro-democracy movement, was marked by an online poetry memorial service organized by the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) and other civil society organizations. A number of social activists called on Hong Kong people to learn from Li Wangyang’s determination to “never look back even if his head is chopped off” and to persevere in the fight for democracy and freedom.

The Vice-Chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HKASPDMC), Zou Xingtong, said that to fight for democracy from the totalitarian hands, one must be prepared to gamble everything. According to the latest public opinion survey, 62% of the respondents under the National Security Law opposed the idea that the June 4 memorial activities would endanger China’s national security.

Former Chinese labor leader Li Wangyang, known as the “Iron Man of June 4,” was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his support of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, and returned to Hunan Province after his release from prison. He talked about his experience in supporting the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

Former Chinese labor leader Li Wangyang’s suspected suicide

When Li Wangyang’s interview was broadcast on June 2 of the same year, the Hunan Ministry of Public Security stepped up surveillance of Li Wangyang. When Li Wangyang’s sister Li Wanling visited him on June 6, she found Li Wangyang standing by the window with a white cloth tied around his neck and hanging from the window frame, dead at the age of 61.

According to Li Wangling, the circumstances of Li’s death were suspicious because Li had been tortured in prison for years and had become almost blind and immobile after his release.

However, the authorities conducted an autopsy on June 8 and concluded that he committed suicide. On June 9, Li Wangyang’s body was forcibly cremated at Shaoyang City Funeral Hall without the permission of his relatives.

Li’s relatives and friends questioned whether Li had “committed suicide,” which drew attention from China, Hong Kong and the international community.

Online poetry memorial service to commemorate the 9th anniversary of Li Wangyang’s death

This year, the first June 4th anniversary after the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong just passed last Friday, and the police once again banned the June 4th candlelight rally in the Victoria Park of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HKASPDMC) under an epidemic restriction, and some pro-establishment figures even argued that mourning activities for June 4th and calling for slogans such as “ending one-party dictatorship” might endanger China’s national security. But there are still thousands of people in Causeway Bay, Mongkok and other areas, candlelight and cell phone lights everywhere to mourn June 4.

The 32nd anniversary of June 4 was followed on Sunday (June 6) by the 9th anniversary of Li Wangyang’s suspected “suicide,” and several civil society organizations, including the CTU, held online poetry memorials under the theme “Common Ideal. A number of social activists called on Hong Kong people to learn from Li Wangyang’s determination to “not look back even if his head is chopped off” and to persevere in the fight for democracy and freedom.

Zou Xingtong: Li Wangyang Spent His Life Questioning Determination to Fight for Freedom

After being detained for more than 33 hours at the police station, he was released on bail last Saturday afternoon (June 5) and immediately joined the memorial service on Sunday night.

The company’s main business is to promote the development of the company’s products and services. The “no turning back even if you chop off your head” that Li Wangyang said has moved many Hong Kong people to take to the streets, mourn his death and compose poems. Zou Xingtong said, “How many Hong Kong people have thought that one day they will have to bear the weight of these words?

We took to the streets, lit candles, composed poems and portrayed his image, but when we were spreading the story of Mr. Wang Yang, we probably didn’t think that one day we would have to bear the weight of the words. are going to bear the weight of this speech ourselves? With his own life, Mr. Li Wangyang is torturing the determination of each and every one of us to fight for democracy.”

Advocating civil society to use soft power to win the hearts of the people

Zou Xingtong said that the current peaceful coexistence between those in power in Hong Kong and those fighting for democracy has been lost, and the regime is now at full-scale war. She believes that Li Wangyang and many pioneers of the 1989 pro-democracy movement have given Hong Kong people the revelation that the power of the regime is naked hard power, force, law, prison, all means of coercion, while civil power should use soft power to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Zou Xingtong said, “But civil power is different. Civil power is soft power, moral power, power of truth, power of perseverance. We figure out the difference between our two sources of power to know how our movement is going to go on.”

Zou Xingtong stressed that to fight for democracy from the hands of the totalitarians, one must also have the determination of Li Wangyang to “not look back even if his head is chopped off” and the psychological readiness to “gamble everything”.

The company’s main goal is to provide a platform for the development of a new generation of people who will be able to take advantage of the new opportunities. Although just analyzed in this way, I think Mr. Wang Yang when he insisted on doing what he wanted to do, he was not trying to calculate how much he could bring to the movement by doing this act, but simply because he thought it was the right thing to do, so it is paradoxical that we are talking about the power of the movement, in fact, these soft forces are precisely not calculable, precisely not those political leaders to calculate The whole movement how to go right, how to go wrong, how to win back, it is often some people who may not (recognize) know before, the pure persistence, the principle of adherence, will provoke the greatest repercussions, will coalesce to the greatest moral force, so that so many of us here for nine years will still stand here.”

Zou Xingtong said, do not think that being arrested, sentenced to prison is to lose, is the so-called “send head”. She stressed that Li Wangyang’s 22 years in prison were not a gift, nor was Liu Xiaobo’s Charter 08, but rather the only way to do the pro-democracy movement under totalitarianism, for which they were psychologically prepared. In fact, according to Zou Xingtong, in the end, adherence to the same principles would not have to be calculated.

The company’s main business is to promote the development of the company’s products and services.

Poll says 62% oppose June 4 mourning activities endanger national security

For the first June 4 anniversary after the implementation of the “Hong Kong National Security Law”, the Hong Kong Institute of Public Opinion Research conducted an online poll from May 28 to June 1, with 7,209 people responding, a press conference was held last Friday (June 4) to announce the findings.

Results showed that 62% of the respondents said they opposed the idea that the June Fourth memorial activities would jeopardize China’s national security, while 23% supported it, and another 10% said half-half.

By political stance, 91% of the 6,132 respondents who identified themselves as pro-democracy supporters opposed the idea that the June Fourth memorial activities would jeopardize China’s national security, while only 5% supported the idea; while 43% of the 718 non-democracy supporters also opposed the idea that the June Fourth memorial activities would jeopardize China’s national security, 36% supported the idea, and another 15% said half-half.

Former school movement leader criticizes Beijing for distorting the truth about June 4

Chen Qinghua, former secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), who represented Hong Kong’s academic community in Beijing during the 1989 pro-democracy movement, said the poll results reflect that Hong Kong people’s hearts and minds are not frightened by the national security law, and that even supporters of the pro-establishment camp refuse to distort the truth about the June Fourth Incident, and he believes that Beijing will become increasingly harsh in suppressing Hong Kong people’s mourning for the June Fourth Incident.

Chen Qinghua said: “More importantly, it (Beijing) with us and we have to look at this figure, if it continues to be like this year after year, it (the Chinese Communist Party) the degree of embarrassment will only increase, and this regime will not allow itself to be embarrassed, June 4 with other movements, the biggest difference is that the world can come together to witness, it (the Chinese Communist Party) how to distort (the facts) to the end. I tell you, I have seen with my own eyes that more than 500 people died in the square, and it will argue with you that they were not killed in the square, but they were injured elsewhere and died in the square. What? It (the Chinese Communist Party) does not say, but the original situation in Hong Kong, it this kind of does not say, surprisingly, even its own supporters, will find it unreasonable.”

For the pro-establishment legislators who used to condemn Beijing during the 1989 pro-democracy movement, change their stance today, and some even say they are increasingly convinced that no one has died on June 4, Chen Qinghua responded with a lyric, “Turned their backs on the ideals anyone can.”

Chen Qinghua said, “As for the legislator chose to put down, put down what he believed in, I think are that lyrics can respond, ‘renounce the ideal anyone can’, they do it to show you. As for the friend who said that on that day, he was even many years ago (a) person from the Hong Kong Federation of Students, you notice that his statement is very technical, it’s all that line ‘No one died in Tiananmen Square’. But even that I will tell you, even if you don’t count the masses who were killed outside, even if you don’t count the students who I experienced in front of my eyes and saw him die in front of me, those who were not shot inside the square, those who were shipped outside with gunshot wounds are not counted.”

Witnessed with his own eyes workers were shot in Tiananmen Square

Chen Qinghua said that for there is a debate whether there was a death in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the early morning of June 4, 1989, he said he personally saw a worker shot dead in Tiananmen Square.

Chen said: “I was back in Tiananmen Square at 2:00 pm on June 4, after doing a tank barricade at the mouth of the Sixth Department, and I saw with my own eyes a worker who was standing next to the flagpole, he just picked up a glass bottle (bottle), not a gas bomb, rest assured, an empty bottle only, he made a gesture to throw to the PLA defense line, the bottle (bottle) are (still). The bottle (bottle) has not left the hand, a shot straight to the heart died in front of me, who said Tiananmen Square has not died, meet with me.”

Chen Qinghua believes that Beijing will continue to suppress Hong Kong people’s memory of the June 4 incident on all fronts, the education system will not allow the teaching, with the memory of the people do not speak out, so that people slowly fade into oblivion and can not recognize.

Chen Qinghua, former secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), who represented the Hong Kong academic community in Beijing during the 1989 pro-democracy movement, said that he had seen a worker shot dead in Tiananmen Square in the early hours of June 4, 1989, in response to a debate about whether anyone had died in Tiananmen Square.