Statement in commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre
June 4, 2020
Today on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, we would like to commemorate the brave Uyghur and Chinese souls who gave their lives in the fight for democracy and freedom against the tyrannical Chinese government.
It has been over 30 years and the Chinese government has never been held truly accountable for the June 4th, 1989 massacre. Unfortunately, their action has only continued to worsen. In July 2009, when Uyghurs demonstrated peacefully to protest government’s repressive and unjust policies, the Chinese government responded with another massacre in Urumchi, for which, again, they have never been held accountable until today. Now ten years later, the Chinese government continues to hold millions of innocent Uyghurs in mass incarceration camps in an effort to eradicate their ethnic identity, cultural values and religious beliefs through physical, psychological torture and brainwashing. Furthermore, as world is witnessing, the Chinese government has been attempting to curtail freedom and liberty of the people in Hong Kong and expand its tyrannical rule in the territory. For the first time in 30 years, people in Hong Kong are banned from commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre. While the Chinese communist government has been regressing, not progressing, in their approach to democracy, human rights, individual liberty and freedom since the Tiananmen massacre, the government has never faced any real consequences to its actions to this day.
While the United States has begun to address the issues with sanctions on those responsible and Bills like the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (currently on the President’s table to sign), we sincerely hope the rest of the world be outraged by China’s continued crimes against humanity and stand with oppressed people in their struggle against the tyranny of the Chinese communist government.
We, Uyghur Americans, are blessed to live in this country where our freedom of thought and expression is enshrined in the Constitution and thankful to have the opportunity to contribute to American society and continue to fight for our freedom, democracy and human rights. We stand in solidarity with all who continue to uphold the belief that all men are created equal and endowed with rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are basic freedoms that the Chinese Communist Party has long been stripping away from the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers and Chinese people. These are the values that those who stood at Tiananmen Square in 1989 wanted to defend and fight for.
That is why we ask that, on this day, people around the world take a moment to remember the lives that were lost for the basic freedoms we have in the free world. Let us remind ourselves that the same cruelty of the Chinese Communist Party 31 years ago, persists today at an even worse scale and the perpetrators of crime avians t humanity must be held accountable. May we always stand up for what is right and take action when there is injustice.
