A high-profile Chinese activist in the UK who was inundated with deepfake posts on X portraying her as a sexually promiscuous drug addict was told that the abuse did not breach the rules of Elon Musk’s platform. Apple Peiqing Ni, the 27-year-old founder of the UK-based China Dissent Network, had been advised by UK police to complain to the US-headquartered platform after she was targeted by what she believes is a pro-regime bot. The abuse included 12 posts tagging Ni and containing fake photographs and videos of her. The captions…
Tag: Tiananmen Square protests 1989
Our efforts to record Tiananmen atrocity | Brief letters
Your article (‘Every year I get new pictures’: the fight to preserve the memory of Tiananmen, 4 June) did not mention the Tiananmen archive held in the British Library, which includes documents and photos, and was established in June 1989. On the evening of 3 June, before any shooting had started, a large group of concerned sinologists met in my house, very worried about what was going to happen. One of our decisions that evening was to collect everything we could about Tiananmen and events there.Frances WoodLondon In attempting to…
Hong Kong artist who tried to mark Tiananmen massacre with red thread intercepted by police
A performance artist in Hong Kong who tried on Wednesday to honour the victims of Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown was quickly stopped by plainclothes police, the latest sign of the city’s shrinking freedom of expression. Sanmu Chen tried to tie a symbolic red thread to a street signpost in Causeway Bay, a shopping district close to a park that had for decades hosted an annual candlelight vigil on 4 June to commemorate those who died in the 1989 student-led protests. Hong Kong was for decades the only place in…
‘Every year I get new pictures’: the fight to preserve the memory of Tiananmen
Discussions about the bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters that took place around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on 4 June, 1989 – and in cities across China – often dwell on the risk of forgetting the massacre. The passage of time, with the world’s eyes soon drawn elsewhere, and suppression by authorities at home mean that the pivotal moment in Chinese history is at risk of fading into grey. “Even when it was happening, people felt like the memory of it was going to be fragile,” says Jeffrey Wasserstrom, chancellor’s professor of…
Hong Kong national security trial of three pro-democracy activists to open
The national security trial of three pro-democracy activists who organised an annual memorial in Hong Kong to mark the Tiananmen Square massacre is to begin on Thursday. Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho are charged with inciting subversion under Hong Kong’s national security law. Their trial is one of the most high-profile national security cases to be heard in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed the law in 2020. The defendants face a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment if convicted. The law has a near-100% conviction rate. The three…
Rare footage from trial of Chinese general who defied Tiananmen crackdown order leaked online
Rare footage of a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) general who defied orders to lead his troops into Tiananmen Square and crush the 1989 student protesters has been leaked online, offering a highly unusual glimpse into the upper echelons of the military at one of the most fraught moments in modern Chinese history. General Xu Qinxian’s refusal to take his troops from the PLA’s prestigious 38th Group Army, a unit based on the outskirts of Beijing, into the capital has been the stuff of Tiananmen lore for decades. The six-hour video…
I’m a Chinese pro-democracy activist. Here’s how to find courage to oppose Trump | Yaqiu Wang
While acting on your moral convictions can be risky, it can also feel profoundly good In the eleven months since Donald Trump took office – during which he has unleashed unprecedented assaults on the checks and balances of American democracy – there has been a wave of warnings and advice from activists, writers and scholars who have either fought against authoritarian regimes or studied them closely. A common thread runs through much of their guidance: Americans, especially those in positions of power, must find the courage to stand up for…
I’m a Chinese pro-democracy activist. Here’s how to find courage to oppose Trump | Yaqiu Wang
In the eleven months since Donald Trump took office – during which he has unleashed unprecedented assaults on the checks and balances of American democracy – there has been a wave of warnings and advice from activists, writers and scholars who have either fought against authoritarian regimes or studied them closely. A common thread runs through much of their guidance: Americans, especially those in positions of power, must find the courage to stand up for what is right, even when doing so carries personal risk. Yet few have addressed the…
Örkesh Dölet descended on to Tiananmen Square with thousands of fellow student protesters. He’s now 36 years into exile | Nuria Khasim
When I was little, mum used to take us to visit an elderly Uyghur couple every year. We would climb up the winding concrete stairs in a Soviet-era apartment block and be greeted with a warmth that felt like family. Over piping hot bowls of Uyghur chay, mum would talk to them for hours while my brother and I listened. I always assumed they were relatives of ours, until mum told me that they were the parents of her friend Örkesh Dölet, and they had not seen their son for…
Exiled pro-democracy activist on being Uyghur during Tiananmen Square protests – video
In 1989, a young Uyghur named Örkesh Dölet was a student leader in the Tiananmen Square protests. Throughout the protests, Dölet represented students in televised negotiations with Chinese Communist Party leaders. After the massacre, the 21-year-old was put on China’s list of most wanted student leaders and so he fled the country. He now lives in exile in Taiwan. ‘For every important choices I make in my life, my Uyghur-ness has always came in and played an important role,’ he says. ‘That we do the right thing, not the safe…