Without independent institutions, the CCP’s unchecked authority leads to recurring “predicaments” for ordinary people.

VOA Interview with He Xiaoqing: The Tragedy of the June Fourth Incident Recurring Because the CCP’s Power Lacks Checks and Balances—by Fan Dongning for Voice of America.

In Brief by Probe International

Thirty-seven years after troops opened fire on unarmed civilians in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party continues its decades-long campaign to erase public memory of the massacre. On this solemn anniversary, heightened security measures blanketed Tiananmen Square, while authorities took the unprecedented step of formally banning the “Tiananmen Mothers”—the group of victims’ families—from visiting the cemetery to mourn their loved ones. Amnesty International described the ban as “cold-blooded,” calling out authorities for not only censoring discussion of the events but even denying grieving families private acts of mourning. Professor He Xiaoqing, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, former 1989 student activist, and author of The Tiananmen Exiles, offered a powerful interview reflecting on the enduring legacy of the crackdown, its connections to earlier tragedies like the Cultural Revolution, and the importance of preserving historical memory against official forgetting.

“Not only has the injustice of June Fourth never been redressed, but the Chinese Communist Party has continued to distort history and conceal the truth,” Professor He told VOA. “Whether in Beijing or Hong Kong, whether during the pandemic or after major disasters, people across different generations have faced the same predicament under CCP rule. The reason is the absence of checks and balances on power. When the truth is suppressed, justice cannot be achieved.”

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution. Professor He, through extensive archival research on Lin Zhao—a dissident writer executed during the Mao era—has drawn parallels with the suffering of students in the 1989 June Fourth Incident. She highlighted the case of Zha Weilin, the father of slain June Fourth protester Zha Aiguo, who committed suicide near Tiananmen Square on the 23rd anniversary of his son’s death after years of futile efforts to seek justice. Professor He noted that, despite the generational gap, such stories reveal a tragic pattern: in a country lacking democracy, freedom, and human rights, historical atrocities continue to repeat themselves.

Go to the publisher’s website here for the full article by Voice of America.