Over one thousand people joined a candlelight vigil at the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei yesterday evening to mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Participants called on the Chinese government to acknowledge the killing of the student protesters in 1989 and release all jailed dissidents.

During the vigil, participants, dressed in black, held candles to remember the victims and sang “Do You Hear the People Sing?” – a song from the musical Les Misérables – to urge the Chinese government to listen to its people.

A spokesperson for the Association of Taiwanese Students for the Democratization of China said his group’s bigger hope is for the Chinese government to pursue the responsibilities of the perpetrators of the 1989 killings.

According to Henry Kwok, the event was also aimed at voicing support for dissidents and activists who are jailed or detained in China.

Around 20 NGO representatives took to the stage during the vigil, each holding a large photo of a detained dissident in front of them, to protest China’s treatment of the dissidents, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.

Leaders of Taiwan’s Sunflower Student Movement, including Chen Wei-ting and Lin Fei-fan, also participated in the event.

 

More in Related News

25 Years On, Tiananmen Barely Known to China Youth ABC News June 2, 2014

Tiananmen Square, My Memories BBC News, June 3, 2014

 

Photo via Derzsi Elekes Andor