The Tradition Continues

Over 15,000 lit candles in the hopes of democracy in China

Tonight was the first time I attended the June 4th vigil at Victoria Park. And I hope it will not be my last.

Paper cranes in front of a picture of Tiananmen Square

I went with some friends from Beijing who also wanted to experience it for themselves. We met up for an early dinner then headed to Causeway Bay after 6:30pm. St George Street was already blocked off for pedestrians and the road was lined with ad hoc stands asking people to support this group and that group related to the Tiananmen Square massacre. Some sold "Who is Afraid of Ai Weiwei?" T-shirts, gave away stickers calling for the redress of June 4, 1989 or literature related to the incident.

The crowd wound its way into Victoria Park with more stands, more bullhorns with people calling for attention to their cause, asking for donations. A few politicians were there including Emily Lau Wai-hing, waving to the incoming crowd.

Get your redress June 4 memorabilia

By the time we got onto the football pitches there was an hour to go and while we were far from the main stage, there was a giant screen ahead and we sat on the ground. On stage young people sang pro-democracy songs over and over again. We also got white candles and conical paper cups with their tips cut off to put the candle through (with a bit of ripping). We helped each other light our candles which was a nice community touch.

Finally it started with a giant stand with flowers placed in the front along with a giant lit torch. We all stood up and bowed three times, then three times again. Lee Cheuk-yan is the chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China and took over after Szeto Wah. He gave a speech in an emotional voice, calling for everyone to remember this dark day in history and how 22 years later we are still calling for redress and waiting for democracy and human rights in China. Even though Uncle Wah is not here, Lee said, we will continue to remember in future generations what happened.

Interspersed were songs that were sung earlier and shouting out slogans calling for the redress of June 4, for human rights and democracy.

Messages urging for redress of June 4

We heard a taped speech by Ding Zilin, leader of the Tiananmen Mothers Support Group, saying how brave we were to come together and remember what happened on June 4. She also said how freedom of speech is deteriorating in China with the detainment of people like Ai Weiwei and imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo.

Wang Dan also gave a video recorded message in his office strangely dressed in a suit while the rest of us were sweating in T-shirts and shorts.

Hong Kong students went on stage and talked about how they are the same age as those idealistic students over 20 years ago. The main speaker talked about how they are told to love their country, but how can they when they see the repression in Inner Mongolia, the people being moved away in the Three Gorges Dam area, people committing suicide in factories in Shenzhen...

Quirky slogan: "Heaven Destroys CCP"

A video message came on and went through the history of New China or Xinhai, how it is 100 years old this year and highlighted the main historical events, stopping at 1989. Then it showed the faces of people who have sacrificed so much to speak out, such as Ai Weiwei, Liu Xiaobo, Tan Zuoren, trying to find out how many died in the Sichuan earthquake, Gao Zhisheng, the human rights lawyer who has still been disappeared, Zhao Lianhai, the tainted milk activist, Tian Xi, who has Aids and is trying to get justice for having infected blood... many people clapped in support when seeing their faces on the screen.

And finally Lee came back on stage again, repeating what he said earlier, but also added that while Hong Kong may not have democracy, it has freedom of speech. "Wen Jiabao, ni pa shenme?" Wen Jiabao, what are you afraid of? Many clapped again.

Messages calling for the remembrance of June 4, 1989

One of my friends took pictures on her phone and tried to put it up on her Sina Weibo microblog, but it was quickly deleted. "I didn't say anything," she said afterwards. "I just took a picture and then said 'we are all here together', and it was deleted. I even took a picture of my candle and that too was taken down."

I suggested that perhaps the censors were doubly on alert today.

Throughout the event the organizers gave updates on how many football pitches were filled up and eventually all six were and the grass areas were filled too. They added the police count was that there were some 150,000 people there tonight.

This year was particularly bittersweet, with the passing of Szeto in January and the unprecedented crackdowns due to fears of a Jasmine revolution (we were handed jasmine flowers), and the detainment of Ai and imprisonment of Liu which probably explained the large turnout.

It was wonderful seeing so many people, particularly young people who weren't even alive in 1989 at the event. They understand what happened thanks to their parents and media and are willing to come and commemorate the incident.

We inched our way out of the park and streets and grabbed yet another bite to eat. While eating and drinking we watched Li Na make history to win the French Open, beating Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-6 (7-0).

Now the Chinese have something to celebrate about on June 4 than be afraid of...

Fact of the Day: Cancer is China's No. 1 Killer

There are depressing figures coming out of China. The Chinese Ministry of Health data says cancer is the cause of death in one-quarter of all deaths in the countryside.

 

While the Chinese government may have lifted millions of its people out of poverty, they are now paying the price for rapid development.

 

There are reports from the countryside revealing the epidemic of "cancer villages" linked to pollution due to mostly heavy industries.

 

Lung cancer is the most common, surging almost five times since the 1970s. Major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have particulates in the air four times higher than New York City, where almost 30 percent of cancer deaths are from lung cancer. Meanwhile in the countryside the problem is because of coal burning, which is responsible for 70 percent of soot emissions -- carcinogens, sulfur dioxide and mercury.

 

And then there is smoking -- over half of China's adult male population smoke, resulting in one in 10 of 1 million Chinese who die of smoking-related diseases including second-hand smoke.

 

Other than lung cancer, liver and stomach cancer each account for 20 percent of deaths in the countryside. Liver cancer is three times likely to kill a Chinese farmer than the average global citizen. This is because cancers are linked to polluted water or dangerous chemicals that have leeched into the soil and ground water. Government data shows half of China's rivers, and more than three out of four lakes and reservoirs are too polluted for safe drinking, even after treatment. But people still drink the water because that's all they have or can afford.

 

Geographer Lee Liu did an analysis in Environment magazine in 2010. He found some 450 cancer villages that were usually in very poor areas near polluted waterways or downstream from industrial parks. In some cases Liu observed "the death rate is higher than the birth rate and is rising rapidly", and it's not because of an aging population.

 

Huangmengying village in Henan Province is one of the worst Liu documented, as it is located by the heavily polluted Huai river that is practically black. Some 80 percent of the village's young people are chronically ill, with one-year-olds getting diagnosed for cancer.

 

Another bleak picture thanks to the severe pollution in China is the rise of birth defects in the country. Of the 1 million children born with birth defects every year, some 20 to 30 percent may be treated, but 40 percent will have permanent disabilities. The remainder die shortly after birth.

 

Defects, due to things like excessively high levels of mercury in the blood lead to impairing cognitive and nervous system development, stunt growth and have low IQs. With China's one-child policy, many precious children are hardly given a better chance at life than their parents.  

 

What is China going to do about this? Currently it is sacrificing the health of its citizens and risking its future prosperity.

How is China going to reach its supposed superpower status when too many people are too sick to be productive?

Trailblazer at Roland Garros

Li Na is going to the finals of the French Open

Li Na is on fire.

She is the first Chinese national to make it to the finals of the French Open after she defeated Maria Sharapova 6-4 7-5.

We all remember when one-hit wonder American Michael Chang won the grand slam title at the tender age of 17 and then couldn't keep the momentum going anymore.

However sixth seed Li is only getting better and better. She lost in the Australian Open in January and this is her second attempt at winning a grand slam.

Perhaps her turning point in this tournament was in the fourth round when Li was down 3-0 in the third set playing against Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.

Li's husband Jiang Shan who was also her former coach, left the stands at that moment, probably unable to bear watching his wife go down in what he may have thought was defeat.

However the 29-year-old battled back and managed to win at 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 to make the quarter finals.

"I don't know what happened. Maybe it's just my husband left and I was able to win six games in a row," joked Li after that epic match.

She has stepped up her game significantly after working with new coach Michael Mortensen in April.

Li know her homeland fans are watching her every move and hopes to inspire the next generation of players.

"[On] clay court for all Asia people [who are] not doing so well because you have to slide a lot," Li said. "But after this I think all Asia people have more confident play on clay courts."

She can now take a break and see who she will play in the final, either title holder Francesca Schiavone or Marion Bartoli.

Jia you! 加油! [literally "add oil" or keep going!]

Told you Li's on fire.

Trying to Buy Reconciliation

Victims' families say no amount of money could compensate for lives lost in 1989

In the run-up to the 22nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, the mainland authorities have tried to discuss giving compensation money to the families of the June 1989 victims.

This is the first time they have approached the relatives of an unnamed victim twice since February, offering an unspecified amount of money. It was not clear if the money was supposed to be compensation or hush money.

In any event, the Tiananmen Mothers Support Group which revealed this latest development in an open letter welcomed this as a first step towards breaking the silence around the incident. But the group also said the gesture fell well short of the families' demands and was hardly a convincing gesture of reconciliation.

It accused the authorities of trying to settle the long-standing issue with money and trying to avoid the issue by not giving a public account of what happened so that the victims did not die in vain and still in obscurity.

"The visitors [police] did not speak of making the truth public, or providing an explanation for the case of each victim," the group said.

"Instead, they only raised the question of how much to pay, emphasizing that this was meant for that individual case and not for the families in the group as a whole."

The open letter also called for the end of "constant surveillance and personal restrictions" of the victims' families, as the group believed that would create a condition for further dialogue. In the run-up to sensitive anniversaries, members of this group are usually taken away on "holiday". The advocacy group also dismissed the possibility of settling with the authorities individually than as a group.

So far the relatives have documented 203 victims, with many of the victims' relatives yet to be located, while up until now Beijing has yet to release an official figure of the casualties.

The letter also noted the deterioration of human rights in China, saying it was the worst since 1989.

A veteran writer, journalist and advocate of reconciliation on the June 4 issue says paying compensation without establishing the truth would be unacceptable.

"The government has finally made a belated, tacit and strikingly much too small step towards acknowledging the truth of the crackdown, which is the prerequisite for any serious effort to seek reconciliation," Dai Qing said.

"As long as the authorities refuse to make public the whole truth, the relatives should not give up their hope and should be persistent to demand dialogue and try to make every little progress possible."

The Tiananmen Mothers Support Group are not deterred; they will continue their fight for justice for their children.

Even 22 years later their sons and daughters have yet to be recognized as victims of the government. No amount of money would ever replace those lives lost.

One wonders what the authorities will do next year to try to placate the families...