Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong and Taiwan attended candlelight vigils to commemorate the 25th anniversary of China’s bloody military suppression of protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. (June 4)
SHOTLIST:
AP TELEVISION – AP CLIENTS ONLY
Hong Kong – 4 June 2014
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Zoom out of crowd attending candlelight vigil for the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown
2. Pan across crowd holding candles
3. People holding candles
4. Organisers of vigil, including Hong Kong legislator Lee Cheuk-yan, carrying wreath and laying it at foot of replica of the “Goddess of Democracy” statue
5. Replica of “Goddess of Democracy” statue
6. Vigil organisers and young people bowing to statue and monument after wreath was laid
AP TELEVISION – AP CLIENTS ONLY
Taipei, Taiwan – 4 June 2-14
7. Candlelight vigil for the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown
8. Supporters on stage holding pictures of Chinese activists who have been detained by China government
9. Crowd during vigil
STORYLINE:
Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong and Taiwan attended a candlelight vigil on Wednesday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of China’s bloody military suppression of protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
In Hong Kong, participants held candles to remember the victims, turning Victoria Park’s six football fields into an ocean of flickering light.
More than 180 thousand people joined the gathering, according to organisers, while police put the crowd size at almost 100-thousand, one of the largest turnouts for the annual event in recent years.
Democracy activists laid a wreath at a makeshift memorial as they read out the names of those who were killed in the military suppression in 1989.
The crackdown killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of unarmed protesters and onlookers.
In Hong Kong, which retains Western-style civil liberties unseen on the mainland, the memory of the Tiananmen protests reinforces the widening differences with China 17 years after the territory ceased to be a British colony.
Another vigil was held in Taiwan’s capital city, where supporters held pictures of Chinese activists who were detained by Beijing before the anniversary, calling for their safe release soon.
Wu’er Kaixi, one of the exiled student leaders who has been living in Taiwan after escaping the crackdown, asked people to keep supporting them in their fight for democracy.
Supporters lit candles and watched on a projector the recorded speech of Wan Dan, another exiled student leader, who said he will keep working to bring justice to those who were killed in the crackdown.
The protests remain a taboo topic in mainland China, and Beijing has never given a full account of what happened during the crackdown, or its human toll.
