A new museum in Manhattan dedicated to China’s 1989 suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square has opened in New York ahead of the 34th anniversary of the crackdown.
Following the closing of a comparable museum in Hong Kong in 2021 due to pressure from authorities, the June 4th Memorial Museum in New York will house the only such permanent exhibition in the entire world.
On June 4, 1989, tanks stormed into the Beijing plaza before daybreak, putting an end to weeks of student and worker protests. Decades after Chinese officials ordered the military assault, rights campaigners believe the basic demands of the demonstrators, including a free press and freedom of expression, are further away than ever.
Zhou Fengsuo, 55, an exiled former Tiananmen student leader who helped plan the museum, told a press conference that it was a place where the “hope for a free China” lives.
China has never provided a death toll of the 1989 violence, but rights groups and witnesses say it could run into the thousands.
Marking June 4 in mainland China is taboo, and the government has ramped up censorship in recent years.
Public memorials of the crackdown were once allowed in Hong Kong, but Hong Kong police have barred a vigil there since 2020, citing COVID-19 concerns. It is unclear if authorities in the former British colony will allow public memorials this year.
Overseas activists are helping to organize events in cities including Taipei, London, Berlin and Washington
The small New York museum – situated in a cramped office space on the fourth floor of a Sixth Avenue office building – holds items from the Tiananmen events, including banners, letters, and a blood-stained shirt, as well as photos and detailed news articles from the time.
