Candlelight vigil held in Taipei to commemorate Tiananmen crackdown

Taipei, June 4 (CNA) Around 500 people gathered in Taipei on Thursday evening for an annual candlelight vigil marking the 37th anniversary of the June 4th Incident, according to organizers.

The incident refers to the Chinese authorities' bloody crackdown on student-led, pro-democracy demonstrations in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. The exact death toll remains unknown, with estimates ranging from hundreds to possibly thousands.

This year's vigil, themed "Memory Beyond Borders, Resistance Without Boundaries," was held outside Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei.

Despite the heavy rain, participants -- many of them Hongkongers living in Taiwan -- held electronic candles and observed 64 seconds of silence at 8:09 p.m. to mourn the victims of the crackdown.

At around 8:00 p.m., organizers said about 500 people had taken part in the vigil. That was considerably fewer than the 3,000 who attended in 2025, they noted, citing heavy rain as the main reason.

Voices of participants

Among them was Daniel Wang, a fifth-year student at National Taiwan University who said he had attended the annual vigil several times after first learning about the June 4th Incident in a high school history class.

Wang, 22, said he understood that some Taiwanese might see the crackdown as "China's issue" and therefore feel it was not something Taiwan should be concerned about.

"But I think such a large-scale human rights violation should be remembered by everyone," he said.

Wang added that Taiwan's experience with transitional justice could serve as a reference for China if it democratizes in the future and help prevent it from repeating the same mistakes.

"That is why I hope more Taiwanese people will remember this history together," he said.

Flower, a pseudonym used by a Hongkonger who moved to Taiwan six years ago, said she "treasures" the opportunity to attend the candlelight vigil in Taiwan, at a time when similar events are no longer allowed in her hometown.

For years, pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong held annual candlelight vigils in Victoria Park on June 4, drawing tens of thousands of attendees. However, the Hong Kong authorities banned the event in 2020, citing COVID-19 concerns.

Since the imposition of the Hong Kong national security law on June 30, 2020, no large-scale candlelight vigil has been held in the former British colony to commemorate the incident.

Taiwan is now widely seen as the only place in the Chinese-speaking world where large-scale public commemorations of the Tiananmen Square massacre are still held.

Flower said she believes Taiwan should also attach importance to the June 4th Incident.

"Whenever unarmed civilians are brutally suppressed by authoritarian powers, everyone -- whether Taiwanese, Hongkongers or people from elsewhere -- should speak out," she said.

"That is why I think it is important to take part and let more people know about it," she added.

Witness account

The event, organized by the New School for Democracy and other human rights groups, featured speeches by human rights advocates from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and other countries, as well as songs commemorating the victims of the crackdown.

Feng Congde (封從德), one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, recounted that by 4 a.m. on June 4, 1989, Chinese troops had already been executing the crackdown in Beijing for several hours.

At around 4:30 a.m., while several thousand people remained in Tiananmen Square, Feng said he presided over the protesters' final vote there, which resulted in the decision to withdraw from the square.

Although many later believed the withdrawal was the right decision, Feng said it had remained "a heavy historical burden" for him.

"I felt I had let them down -- the people of Beijing, and the students from across the country who had come to protect Tiananmen Square," he said.

"To this day, I still do not know whether that decision was right or wrong," he added.

In addition to the event near Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, some Taiwan-based Hongkongers held a separate candlelight vigil at 228 Peace Memorial Park in Taipei, with around 60 people in attendance.