Kathleen McLaughlin
The Telegraph
May 31, 2013
More than 100 people whose relatives were killed during China’s 1989 crackdown on protestors in Tiananmen Square have lashed out at Xi Jinping, accusing the country’s new president of taking “giant steps backwards”.
In an open letter, penned on the eve of the 24th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown, the relatives wrote of their “disappointment and despair” at the thought that their grievances might never be addressed. “Our hope is fading and despair is drawing near,” members of the Tiananmen Mothers group wrote according to a translation by the group Human Rights in China.
“We don’t believe our leaders, and we have little trust in their words.” Mr Xi took power in March, stirring hopes among intellectuals and ordinary Chinese that his decade in power might bring political reform to the Chinese Communist Party, which has ruled the country since 1949.
But the letter claimed those hopes had already been dashed, with China’s new leader giving no indication that he would publicly reassess the crackdown on pro-democracy activists which rights groups say claimed anywhere between 200 and 3,000 lives.
Chinese leaders “come one after another, as if through a revolving door; and as they move forward, they become ever more distant and outrageous, causing a universal feeling of despair to descend on the people from all sides,” the mothers claimed.
The group, which has 123 members, complained that more than two decades after what is known as the “June 4 incident” the authorities still refused to recognise the official death toll or explain what had happened that day.
“To this day, all our efforts have been in vain, we have received not a single response from the government,” the letter said.
Responding to the letter on Friday, Hong Lei, the foreign ministry spokesman, said China had already reached a “clear conclusion” about the events of June 4, 1989.
“The Chinese people enjoy extensive rights and freedom,” he added.
The Tiananmen Mothers group vowed to “never give up” campaigning until the “souls of the victims” could be laid to rest with an official recognition of the scale of the tragedy.
