Coalition Statement on June Fourth 六四32週年聯合聲明

This year marks the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy movement and the June Fourth massacre. We honour the memory of all those who rallied for democracy in 1989, many of whom were murdered or jailed. As always, we stand firmly with Tiananmen Mothers, supporting their demands for truth, accountability, and justice for victims.

The largest June Fourth commemoration vigil used to take place in Hong Kong. However, since 2020 the Hong Kong government has used the pretext of the pandemic to crack down on public commemoration of the events. There are concerns that future commemorations may be banned. We have also seen the adoption of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, which has led to the imprisonment of more than a hundred outstanding political activists. Dozens of citizens who participated in the June Fourth vigil last year have been charged, four of whom have been sentenced to up to 10 months in prison. Many Hong Kongers will continue to face trials for participating in peaceful assembly. A trial of leading democracy activists on charges of ‘subversion’ under the National Security Law is in progress as we write. They include leading trade unionists, Carol Ng and Winnie Yu, who face possible long prison sentences. We stand in solidarity with them.

In the Uyghur region, the Chinese state is imposing brutal repression and committing atrocities. Two independent legal analyses have found that these amount to crimes against humanity and genocide, which have been formally recognised by multiple governments. Up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples have been interned in concentration camps, along with nearly one million children taken from their families and interned in supposed ‘boarding schools’. Over half a million are subject to forced labour from which both Chinese and Western companies profit. State policies targeting Uyghur women, including mass forced contraception and sterilisation, have caused the sharpest drop in births anywhere in the world since 1950. These atrocities, along with forced cultural and linguistic assimilation, are a calculated attempt to destroy the Uyghur nation.

Forced Sinicization is also taking place in other so-called autonomous regions under Xi Jinping’s ‘cultural nationalist’ policies. Southern Mongolians are being deprived of the right to learn in their mother tongue as the Chinese language is made the medium of instruction in schools. This has led to large-scale public protests and subsequent crackdown. In addition to the cultural genocide, Tibetans are facing a campaign of heavy repression leading Freedom House to list Tibet as the second least-free place in the world, alongside Syria, in its annual ranking on political rights and civil liberties. Long-term plundering of Tibetan land and mineral resources has caused large-scale environmental damage on the Tibetan Plateau, affecting hundreds of millions of people in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

We call on the UK government to recognise its duty to offer safe haven to all people fleeing repression and violence. The narrow BNO (British National Overseas) scheme offers safety only to Hong Kongers, and among them, only those fortunate enough to have particular documents and the ability to pay exorbitant fees. The UK government must drop its current plans to further restrict asylum rights as these will severely impact people fleeing religious and political persecution such as that experienced across China. Instead, the UK must offer safety, security and equality to all asylum seekers.

We campaign for Magnitsky sanctions on those in the Chinese leadership involved in gross human rights abuses, and for action against all companies, including British businesses, that are complicit in the repression in the Uyghur Region, Tibet, Hong Kong and other territories ruled by the PRC.

Democracy and civil liberties that students and workers fought for in Tiananmen Square 32 years ago are yet to be won in China. Neither are these fundamental values and human rights invulnerable to erosion in democratic countries. The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us a lesson: the world is small and we are all connected. No one is free until everyone is free. The rights to freedom of assembly and protest that we have enjoyed in the UK will remain a privilege until people in other parts of the world can all enjoy the same rights, and here too we must fight against increasing limitations on these rights. Liberty and equality are intertwined. National self-determination is closely connected to international struggles. Emancipation can only be achieved by forming solidarity with oppressed peoples all over the world.

Signatories:

Remember June Fourth

Chinese Solidarity Campaign

Democracy for Hong Kong

The World Uyghur Congress

Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities

Labour Movement Solidarity for Hong Kong

Uyghur Solidarity Campaign UK

Tibetan Community in Britain

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In  Chinese

                                    六四32週年聯合聲明

今年是1989年民主運動和六四屠殺32週年。我們謹此向所有八九民運參與者致敬，其中很多人遇難或被捕入獄。我們一如既往地聲援天安門母親，堅定不移地支持她們對調查真相、追究責任、還受難者以正義的訴求。

香港曾經是每年六四燭光紀念集會規模最大的城市。然而，自2020年以來，香港政府以新冠疫情為由鎮壓公開紀念六四的活動。令人擔憂的是，未來的六四紀念也可能被禁止。 《國家安全法》在香港頒布後，已經有一百多名傑出政治活動人士被監禁。去年參加六四悼念活動的幾十名市民受到起訴，其中四人已經被判刑，刑期長達10個月。還有許多香港人因參與和平集會面臨審判。在我們起草這篇聲明的同時，對重要民主活動人士的審判正在進行，指控的罪名是《國家安全法》中的“顛覆”罪。工會成員吳敏兒和余慧明也在指控之列，她們可能面臨長期監禁。我們聲援這些香港人。

在維吾爾地區，中國政府正在殘酷鎮壓，犯下累累暴行。根據兩份獨立的法律分析，中國當局的行為已經構成反人類罪和種族滅絕罪，一些國家已經正式認定中國政府所犯下的罪行。多達180萬維吾爾人和其他突厥穆斯林人被關進集中營，近100萬兒童被從家中帶走，關入所謂的“寄宿學校”。超過50萬人被強迫勞動，而中國和西方公司都從中牟利。針對維吾爾婦女的國家政策，包括大規模強制避孕和絕育，使這裡成為自1950年以來全世界出生率下降最快的地區。這些暴行，伴隨著文化和語言的強迫同化，是蓄意企圖毀滅維吾爾民族。

在習近平的“文化民族主義”政策下，其他所謂的“自治區域”也受到強迫漢化。南蒙古人被剝奪了使用母語學習的權利，漢語成為中小學的教學語言。大規模的公眾抗議爆發，鎮壓也接踵而至。除了文化滅絕之外，藏人還面臨著嚴酷鎮壓，“自由之家”在政治權利和公民自由年度排名中，將圖博列為僅次於敘利亞的世界上最不自由的地區。對圖博土地和礦產資源的長期掠奪已經對青藏高原造成了大規模的環境破壞，影響到數億生活在南亞、東南亞和中國的居民。

我們呼籲英國政府承認自己有責任為所有逃離壓迫和暴力的人提供安全庇護。英國國民海外公民計劃的覆蓋範圍狹窄，只為香港人提供安全，而在這些人中，只有那些幸運地擁有特定文件和有能力支付高昂費用的人能夠受益。英國政府必須放棄目前進一步限制庇護權的計劃，因為這些計劃會嚴重影響到逃離宗教和政治迫害（例如在中國各地經歷的迫害）的人士。英國必須向所有尋求庇護者提供安全、防護和平等。

我們呼籲以《馬格尼茨基人權問責法》制裁那些參與嚴重侵犯人權的中國領導人，並採取行動制裁所有與發生在維吾爾地區、圖博、香港和其他中國轄域的鎮壓有關聯的公司，包括英國企業。

學生和工人32年前走向天安門廣場爭取的民主和公民自由至今尚未在中國實現。這些基本價值和人權在民主國家也不是免受侵蝕的。新冠疫情讓我們得到一個教訓：世界很小，我們彼此息息相關。在每個人都獲得自由之前，沒有人是自由的。我們在英國享有自由集會和抗議的權利，然而在世界其他地方的人們都能享有同樣權利之前，我們目前享有的權利仍然是一項特權，而且在這裡我們也必須反抗對這些權利越來越多的限制。自由和平等交織在一起。民族自決與國際鬥爭緊密相聯。要想實現解放，就必須與全世界被壓迫的人民團結抗爭。

簽名組織：

毋忘六四

中國團結運動

香港民主促進組

世界維吾爾代表大會

支持西藏和受迫害少數民族全球聯盟

英國聲援香港勞工運動

英國維吾爾團結運動

英國藏人社區