Anna Wang: I witnessed Tiananmen Square and I’m proud of Hong Kongers
Credit to Author: Stephen Snelgrove| Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2019 01:00:52 +0000
In 1989, I was 23 and living in Beijing. I witnessed the Tiananmen Square protests from start to finish. The world tends to focus on the cause and details of the incident, but closes its eyes to how people coped with their trauma afterwards.
On the night of June 3, 1989, the People’s Liberation Army began marching from the outskirts of Beijing into the city centre where Tiananmen Square is located. The soldiers killed around 300 civilians along the way, but let the students retreat peacefully when they finally arrived at Tiananmen. There is a detail that needs our attention here: the killing mostly happened en route to Tiananmen Square.
In my opinion, this detail created a profound divide within Chinese society that we still see to this day.
I remember the morning of June 4 vividly. I was shocked to overhear a neighbour claim that it was unfair that students escaped while the civilians protecting them were butchered. We had stood united as one community the night before, but overnight, the students became enemies.
This was exactly the party’s intent. Afterwards, among the 1,500 people prosecuted, workers generally received longer jail terms than students. The people in power were saying to mind your own business, and saying it quite clearly.
Lessons learned by blood are not soon forgotten. Since Tiananmen, we simply haven’t had mass protests in China. That is why in recent years the public can rarely come to grips with issues concerning public security. Only direct victims of injustice will protest, and because of their limited numbers, they are easily handled. Others just look on and feel nothing if not fortunate that they aren’t getting hurt. They have lost the ability to truly empathize.
The darkest consequence of the violent crackdown 30 years ago is that Chinese people have been robbed of their sense of solidarity. There is a Chinese saying that describes this mentality: “Xiao Que Xing” — focus on small things one can find happiness in. A people and a nation that can’t see beyond themselves and their immediate present is pathetic.
I certainly have no right to criticize my fellow Chinese simply because I ran. I immigrated to Canada in 2006, nearly 20 years after the Tiananmen incident. On the surface, my leaving had nothing to do with the tragedy. I didn’t participate in the protests and I wasn’t prosecuted afterwards. Many of my friends left immediately out of disillusionment, but I chose to stay. I believed that the emerging market economy would bring freedom along with it. But I was wrong. Even though my family and I have benefited from China’s economic boom, I don’t think China is a place where I want to raise my children.
While we were living in China, I constantly struggled with whether or not to teach my children the morally questionable tricks needed to survive. Whenever they told me of the unethical behaviour they observed, I told them to mind their business. I learned the chilling lesson from Tiananmen, too. I felt like a coward, and I didn’t want them to grow up like me. I wanted to plant them in a culture that fosters integrity, and I believe I did the right thing bringing them to North America.
But I’m not proud of running from China. Running away meant giving up on changing the country I was born in.
I, too, got into the habit of pursuing whatever small pleasures I could get for myself and my family. I couldn’t see beyond myself and the present. I don’t believe that I can see a free and democratic China in my lifetime.
That is why I was surprised to see millions of Hong Kongers protesting the now-withdrawn extradition bill. In theory, if that bill became law, it would be legal for Hong Kong police to arrest people and hand them over to mainland China, but not every Hong Konger is in immediate danger. From what I know about the party, the bill was intended to target certain groups.
The first group impacted would be media and publishing professionals. In 2015, five shareholders and employees of Causeway Bay Books disappeared from Hong Kong and Thailand. Months after going missing, they suddenly reappeared on China Central Television to confess to their crimes.
The second group targeted would be executives and financiers involved in politics. These figures can be used as leverage in China’s factional struggles in the name of fighting corruption. In 2017, billionaire Xiao Jianhua was taken from his apartment in Hong Kong by Chinese police and spirited over to the mainland. In the past, cases like this stirred up indignation over the Chinese government violating Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous status. If the extradition bill was passed, this would become standard practice.
I also believe that the bill was designed to target foreigners such as former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig. In the past, Beijing has had to wait until these people entered the mainland to arrest them. If the bill had passed, they could be arrested while changing flights in Hong Kong, just as Canada did to Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
The proposed extradition bill ultimately amounted to the removal of the firewall between Hong Kong and China, but it may not immediately threaten the average Hong Konger. If a similar bill had been imposed on Chinese mainlanders, they would have watched it happen without batting an eye. They might think, “As long as the Communist Party doesn’t go after me, they can do what they want.”
If you point out that nobody would be safe under such a system, they would probably quote the Chinese saying: “When the sky collapses, there will always be someone taller than me.”
But the people of Hong Kong think otherwise. They are standing up to say no to the bill. They understand that the proposed system could have implicated anyone, even though they might not be the first to suffer. I have to give the Hong Kong protesters a huge thumbs up. To say that I’m proud of them is an understatement.
The extradition bill has been officially withdrawn. People worldwide are anxious about how the Hong Kong protests will end. I say that we should take a moment to celebrate the victory of the people of Hong Kong. It is long overdue, and I hope that mainlanders could learn something from it. We have a Chinese song called “Pearl of the Orient” that sings the praises of Hong Kong. This pearl has seen ebbs and flows through its history, and it shines even brighter in the darkness before dawn.
Anna Wang was born in Beijing and received her B.A. from Beijing University, and is a full-time writer.
Letters to the editor should be sent to sunletters@vancouversun.com.
CLICK HERE to report a typo.
Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.