天安門廣場的精神
Michael Zhuang
今年是天安門廣場大屠殺（或六四事件）35周年。當年中國共產黨宣布戒嚴，派遣坦克和機槍進行了針對呼籲政治改革和民主的學生示威者的殘酷屠殺。
35年過去了，天安門廣場的歷史在許多人的記憶中逐漸被遺忘，特別是在中國，當局竭盡所能隱瞞其歷史中的這段黑暗章節。在西方，人們或許熟悉鐵幕和柏林牆的倒塌，但與此同時的中國民主運動往往被忽視，特別是現今中國政權在全球範圍內的經濟和地緣政治影響力不斷增長的情況下。
我經常被海外華人群體問到：“我們為什麼仍然紀念天安門廣場呢？”在香港，即使三十年來舉辦最大規模的天安門大屠殺悼念活動，但自2020年以來，由於大規模的反送中抗議活動，悼念活動已被當局禁止。因此，許多人開始質疑1989年的學生抗議運動對我們今天還有多大的意義。
歷史背景
1989年的天安門廣場抗議活動並不是世界上一個孤立的事件。相反，它是對專制主義的更廣泛抗議運動的一部分，這些抗議運動導致了鐵幕和蘇聯的垮台。
1989是一個變革的年份。在東歐，我們看到各國擺脫了蘇聯的壓治，抵抗運動導致民主化，最終柏林圍牆倒塌。當天安門廣場的恐怖場面在全球電視轉播時，它激勵了來自東柏林到布拉格的人們站起來反對專制，就像“坦克人”在北京街頭所做的那樣。
到1989年底，東歐的變革趨勢已經不可阻擋。當齊奧賽斯庫下令羅馬尼亞軍隊射擊抗議者時，軍隊轉向了另一邊。也許天安門廣場給了那些政權領導人一個選擇，要麼被歷史記憶為變革和民主的催化劑，要麼被釘上歷史的恥辱柱。
在蘇聯，不到三個月之後，兩百萬人在波羅的海三國組成了波羅的海之路，和平抗議爭取自由和獨立。這一運動標誌著這個龐大共產主義帝國的終結。
中國的共產黨政權最初得到了蘇聯的支持，就像東歐的政權一樣，而天安門廣場抗議運動是第一波對蘇聯式專制政權的抵抗浪潮。儘管中國的運動被中共殘酷鎮壓，但其在廣泛歷史背景中的意義是不可忽視的。中國軍隊對學生的暴行鎮壓之恐怖在世界各地的抗議運動中引起了迴響。
過去與將來
今天的中國共產黨與朝鮮、伊朗和俄羅斯的政權結盟，正在積極挑戰現有的世界秩序。中共正試圖利用其經濟和政治力量在全球范圍內使其極權統治變得正常化。
在香港，我們目睹了中國如何侵蝕了從英治時期繼承下來的自由和法治。在2020年6月，香港政府禁止了天安門廣場大屠殺的紀念活動之後，中國以“國家安全”的偽裝下頒布了嚴苛的國安法，摧毀了言論自由、陪審團審判、無罪推定等等香港的法制根基。
在香港沉淪為一個警察國家的情況下，中國明白，讓天安門廣場的精神延續下去是對中共的統治構成威脅。香港人對六四的紀念是對中國的反抗以及人民對自由和民主的嚮往。
在台灣，天安門大屠殺似乎相當遙遠，但台灣不斷受到中國入侵的威脅。台灣的自由民主與中國形成鮮明對比。我作為六四之後出生的一代華人，我一直認為，中國的民主化是保護台灣人民主生活方式的唯一途徑。
只要中共掌權，台灣就將被視為對中共統治的威脅。要保證雙方之間的長久和平，除了中國民主化以外別無他法，35年前的天安門廣場抗議是中國人民對自由的呼喊。銘記那場運動的精神意味著今天我們持續傳承下去這場抗爭。
1989年6月4日是中國的恥辱之日。我們銘記中共所犯下的罪行，也是警示世界一個極權共產主義政權的危險，並提醒人們，今天的中國仍然處於和1989年同樣的政權之下。
東歐的鐵幕倒了，但中國共產黨的統治仍然屹立不倒。我相信，作為1989年之後的下一代華人，我們有義務提醒世界，中國當年也是那場龐大的民主運動的一部分。
傳承天安門的抗爭精神是對中共統治的合法性的挑戰，也是阻止中國輸出其共產主義極權意識形態。
The Spirit of Tiananmen Square
By Michael Zhuang
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or the June Fourth Incident, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) declared martial law and deployed troops with tanks and machine guns to carry out a brutal massacre of students protesting for political reform and democracy.
35 years on, the legacy of Tiananmen Square has been largely forgotten by many, especially in China, where the regime did everything it could to conceal this dark chapter in its history. In the West, one may be familiar with the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall, but China’s movement for democracy at the same time is often ignored amid the current Chinese regime’s growing economic and geopolitical influence around the world.
I often get questions like “Why are we still commemorating Tiananmen Square?” from the overseas Chinese diaspora. In Hong Kong, where the largest vigil for Tiananmen Square was held for three decades, the commemorations have been banned since 2020 after large-scale anti-government protests took over the city. So it is not surprising that many start to question how is the student protest movement back in 1989 still relevant to us today.
Historic Background
The protest at Tiananmen Square back in 1989 was not an isolated incident in the world. Instead, it was part of a wider movement against authoritarianism that led to the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the Soviet Union.
1989 was a year of change. In Eastern Europe, we saw nations breaking away from Soviet domination, and resistance movements led to democratisation and eventually the fall of the Berlin Wall. When the horrific scenes of Tiananmen Square were televised around the world, it rallied the people from East Berlin to Prague to take a stand against tyranny like the “Tank Man” did on the streets of Beijing.
By the end of 1989, the trend for change in Eastern Europe became unstoppable. When Ceaușescu ordered the Romanian military to shoot protesters, the military changed sides. Perhaps Tiananmen Square gave leaders in those regimes a choice between being remembered as a catalyst for change and democracy and going down in disgrace and infamy.
In the Soviet Union, two million people in the Baltic states formed the Baltic Way to peacefully protest for freedom and independence less than three months after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The movement marked the beginning of the end for the communist empire.
The Communist regime in China was initially backed by the Soviet Union, just like the regimes in Eastern Europe, and the Tiananmen Square protests were the first wave of resistance against the Soviet-style authoritarian regimes. Although the movement in China was brutally suppressed by the CCP, its significance in the wide historical context cannot be ignored. The horrors of the Chinese military’s atrocities against the students reverberated across protest movements around the world.
Connecting the Past and the Future
Today’s Communist China, allied with the regimes of North Korea, Iran and Russia, is aggressively challenging the existing world order. The CCP is actively attempting to normalise its totalitarian rule around the world using its economic and political power.
In Hong Kong, we have witnessed how China eroded civil liberties and the rule of law that was inherited from the British era. In June 2020 after the Hong Kong government banned the Memorial service for the Tiananmen Square Massacre, China imposed a draconian National Security Law that dismantled freedom of speech, trial by jury, presumption of innocence, etc., under the disguise of “national security”.
In the context of Hong Kong’s descent into a police state, China understands that allowing the spirit of Tiananmen Square to live on is a threat to the CCP’s rule. The Hong Kong people’s remembrance of June 4th was an expression of resistance and the people’s desire for liberty and democracy.
In Taiwan, Tiananmen Square may appear rather distant, but Taiwan is constantly threatened with a Chinese invasion. Taiwan’s liberal democracy is in stark contrast with China. I was born a generation after Tiananmen Square in China, and I have always said that China’s democratisation is the only way to protect the Taiwanese people’s democratic way of life.
As long as the CCP is in power, Taiwan will always be viewed as a threat to the CCP’s rule. There is no other way to ensure long-lasting peace and security between the two sides, and the Tiananmen Square protests 35 years ago were the Chinese people’s shout for liberty. Remembering its legacy means keeping this movement alive.
It was China’s day of infamy on 4 June 1989. Remembering the atrocities committed by the CCP on that day serves as a warning to the world of the dangers of a totalitarian communist regime, and it is a reminder that today’s China is still under the same regime that committed the massacre.
The Iron Curtain collapsed in Eastern Europe, but it stood still in Communist China. I believe it is our obligation, as a new Chinese generation after 1989, to remind the world that the Chinese people were also once a part of the movement for freedom and democracy.
The spirit of the Tiananmen Square protests must stay alive for us to challenge the legitimacy of the CCP’s rule and to prevent China’s export of its authoritarian communist ideology.
（中文版通过ChatGPT幫助翻譯並且修改，歡迎指正用詞語法不當之處。😅內容以英文原文為準。）
|
