Families of Tiananmen victims cite ‘white terror’

Jun 1, 2016Initiative

(June 7th, 2016) Some of the families of the hundreds or perhaps thousands killed by the Chinese army during the government’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in China have accused Beijing of subjecting them to 27 years of “white terror” to try to stop them from speaking out about the mass killings.

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In an open letter, published on June 1 ahead of the 27th anniversary of the protests, the Tiananmen Mothers campaigning group said that security agents has spied on, detained and threatened them as part of attempts to cover up the killings.

But the families vowed that they would not be silenced by such “detestable perversity”. “We have nothing left to fear,” they wrote.

The Communist Party continues to outlaw discussion of those events, fearing that it would undermine its grip on power. No public investigation has even been held and the precise death toll remains a mystery.

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