AD: Tiananmen should not be forgotten

Marking 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, Green Party says world should not forget values of freedom and human rights

A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Cangan Boulevard in Tiananmen Square, on June 5, 1989
A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Cangan Boulevard in Tiananmen Square, on June 5, 1989

Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Arnold Cassola said the brutal repression of students by the Chinese government in the Tiananmen Square protests “should not, and must not, be forgotten.”  

Marking the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Cassola said “the victims of the brutal clampdown of the authorities were clamouring for basic values, such as government accountability, freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Such values, which our Malta today fully encompasses within the fold of the EU, must be cherished by one and all since they form the backbone of any modern and democratic society.”

In 1989, hundreds Chinese students and protestors were killed after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sent 200,000 soldiers in armoured tanks to quash the peaceful pro-democracy protest in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

The Green Party chairperson honoured the memory of anyone who falls victim to “the repression of authoritarian governments which look down upon basic democratic practices."