New Tiananmen museum opens in New York ahead of June 4 anniversary
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[June 02, 2023]
By Aleksandra Michalska and Michael Martina
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The hope for a "free China" lives on in a new
Manhattan museum dedicated to China's 1989 suppression of pro-democracy
demonstrations around Tiananmen Square, exhibit organizers said on
Thursday ahead of the 34th anniversary of the crackdown.
The June 4th Memorial Museum in New York will be the only such permanent
exhibition in the world, following the 2021 closure of a similar museum
in Hong Kong under pressure from authorities.
Tanks rolled into the Beijing square before dawn on June 4, 1989, to end
weeks of student and worker protests. Decades after Chinese leaders
ordered the military assault, rights activists say the demonstrators'
original goals - including a free press and freedom of speech - are
further away than ever.
The small New York museum – situated in a cramped office space on the
fourth floor of a Sixth Avenue office building – holds items from the
Tiananmen events, including banners, letters, and a blood-stained shirt,
as well as photos and detailed news articles from the time.
Zhou Fengsuo, 55, an exiled former Tiananmen student leader who helped
plan the museum, told a press conference that it was a place where the
"hope for a free China" lives.
"Because there is a hope. No matter what kind of defeat there was, and
how much struggle we had to go through, this dream lives here," Zhou
said.
Organizers are set to hold an opening ceremony on Friday.
China's Embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request
for comment.
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Hong Kong Newspapers from June 5, 1989,
reporting the Tiananmen Square China uprising, is pictured during a
press preview of the Tiananmen June 4th Memorial permanent
exhibition, which opens June 2 in Manhattan, in New York City, U.S.,
June 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar
China has never provided a death toll of the 1989 violence, but
rights groups and witnesses say it could run into the thousands.
Marking June 4 in mainland China is taboo, and the government has
ramped up censorship in recent years.
Public memorials of the crackdown were once allowed in Hong Kong,
but Hong Kong police have barred a vigil there since 2020, citing
COVID-19 concerns. It is unclear if authorities in the former
British colony will allow public memorials this year.
Overseas activists are helping to organize events in cities
including Taipei, London, Berlin and Washington.
Wang Dan, another former Tiananmen student leader who helped
establish the museum, said he felt it was his obligation to show his
respect for the protesters who died.
"Don't give up," Wang told Reuters. "That's my message to fellow
Chinese people."
(Reporting by Aleksandra Michalska, Michael Martina, James Pomfret
and Jessie PangEditing by Don Durfee and Rosalba O'Brien)
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