‘Communist Party Continues to Deny Extent of Massacre’: Poilievre Marks Tiananmen Square Massacre Anniversary

Police officers take away a member of the public in the Causeway Bay area in Hong Kong on June 3, 2023, on the eve of the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, which took place in China on June 4, 1989. Louise Delmotte/AP Photo

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre marked the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre with a tribute to the lives lost standing for democracy, along with criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for aggressively attempting to erase reminders and memorials of the event, even 34 years later.

His party “will always fight for freedom, and we will always stand with Chinese Canadians as they attempt to live in peace,” he said in a June 4 news release.

“On this day 34 years ago, the Communist Government in Beijing opened fire on its own citizens in Tiananmen Square, murdering so many protestors and other civilians who only wanted to enjoy peace, freedom, and democracy that the true number is still unknown today,” said Poilievre.

On June 4, 1989, tanks and soldiers armed with guns, on direction from the Chinese communist government, moved in to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the site of a peaceful, pro-democracy protest of university students and ordinary citizens. Hundreds, possibly thousands of civilians were killed as government troops opened fire on their own people.

The death toll from Tiananmen Square remains unknown. At the time, news reports stated that a student-erected statue for democracy was destroyed, and that injured citizens with gunshot wounds were taken in some cases by bicycle to hospital, because ambulances could not access the square. Video of the event showed civilians carrying injured victims on park benches as makeshift stretchers.

“They demanded free speech and democratization from their government, who, instead of letting people have the freedom they had a right to, used soldiers and tanks to crush the protest,” said Poilievre.

In mainland China, discussion of the event is censored. The ruling CCP does not commemorate or speak of it. The Chinese government passed a national security law in 2019 following massive protests, which now suppresses public displays of opposition. Tiananmen statues were removed from universities, and public libraries removed books about the massacre from shelves. Social media, including Facebook and Twitter, are banned in China.

Government authorities can charge dissenters for “disrupting social order,” “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” and in some cases, “subversion of state power,” the last of which can carry a lifetime prison sentence.

“To this day, the Communist Party continues to deny the extent of the massacre and cracks down on any discussion or remembrance of this catastrophic event,” Poilievre said.

“The Communist Party in Beijing has failed to atone for their cruelty. Time and time again, whether it’s through the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, their aggression in the South China Sea, or their persecution of Canadians of Chinese heritage in Canada, it has become clear that we must stand up to the Communist government in Beijing.”

By press time on June 4, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had made no official statement on his social media about the massacre.

Lethbridge Conservative MP Rachael Thomas, in a June 4 statement on Twitter about the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, said that “pro-democracy demonstrations were brutally suppressed by Beijing’s dictatorship. Let us honour those who saw our democratic freedom as something worth dying for & gave up their lives for the benefit of many.”

Eva Fu contributed to this report.