“There is no eternity in any governance. I believe that authoritarians are not at one end.
The opportunity serves as an opportunity to commemorate those killed at the “terrifying” event, said Eric Patterson, president and chief executive of the Communist Memorial Foundation’s Victims, which hosted the vigil. But more than that, he saw a reason for hope.
“We recall the lies and lawlessness of communism fell on the roadside in Romania, Hungary, Poland and many other countries,” he said. What happened to these communist regimes is hopeful that “at some point in the future there will be a new day in China.”
Rush Abbas, executive director of the Washington-based Uyghur advocacy group campaign, said the 1989 incident showed China “can be done by the administration.”
“Today, depression is flowing through the black cells of Tibetan, the streets of Hong Kong, New Jiang concentration camps,” Abbas said on a new night.
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“China’s long black arms reach us here through cross-border threats and cross-border oppression, even in the land of freedom and the home of brave homes.
“The way CCPs are changing, targets change, but the goals remain the same: submission without truth, silence without peace, prosecution without accountability,” she added. “The CCP is quietly working to replace this authoritarian freedom of rule and democracy, but the world is trained to treat its abuse as background noise.”
The campaign of Uyghurs founder Rushan Abbas will speak at an event that occurred at the Communist Memorial in Washington on June 4, 2025, to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre that took place in China on June 4, 1989. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
Marking the day, Rep. Chris Smith (RN.J.) introduced a bill that addresses the censorship of the Chinese administration and uses sanctions and legal tools to protect US citizens and legal residents from the threat of Chinese agents.
“The CCP’s longevity”
Rowena He is a historian and author of the book Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China, and was a student in Guangzhou, the southeastern city of China at the time of the genocide. She returned to campus the next day in mourning, wearing a black armband, where she shared, and the teacher told her, “No one will protect you” if she didn’t take it off.
Remembering what happened in 1989 is more important than the victims and participants of the protest, she told the Epoch Times.
Rowena He, a senior researcher at the Civitas Institute, will be speaking at the event that took place at the Communist Memorial in Washington on June 4, 2025, to commemorate the massacre of Tiananmen Square in China on June 4, 1989. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
“The truth has not been revealed yet, and justice has not been done,” she said. The administration’s cover-up deployed around the Tiananmen Square incident happened again during the Covid-19 pandemic, where doctors wanted to warn about the dangers of the virus, she pointed out in her speech.
It “has become a violation of the human rights of all humans on earth,” she said. “So, human rights and Tiananmen (about them), China (it’s about China. It’s here. It’s about us. It’s now.”
Piero Tozzi, staff director of China’s bipartisan parliamentary executive committee, said the massacre is a lesson in what the world can do.
“The nature of the administration revealed itself 36 years ago. It’s the same regime as today’s power,” Tozzi told the Epoch Times. “But the difference is that they are much stronger, economically and military.”
In 2000, Congress passed laws to grant China a permanent, most favorable state status. This, now known as a permanent regular trade relationship, paves the way for China’s membership in the World Trade Organization. This status opened the US market on Chinese products with trade benefits, including reduced tariffs.
“We had a chance to really destroy the administration, but we rescued them,” Tozzi said. And now, “That monster has grown.”
At an event commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre in China, a victim of Washington’s Communist Memorial on June 4, 1989, and the staff director of the Chinese Congress’s Executive Committee, Piero Tozzi, happened on June 4, 2025 at the Communist Memorial in Washington. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
“Now, it’s an existential threat, not just for the US, but for the world.”
Francis Hui, who was granted exile in the US in September 2021, once said that before she learned of the massacre when she was 10 years old, she was once “burned into China’s national pride.”
The 1989 incident opened her eyes, Hui told the Epoch Times.
“I realized, like China, people actually were waiting for democratic China years ago. Just like us, like Hong Kong, we’re fighting all the time,” she said.
Hui is currently the advocacy coordinator for the Hong Kong Freedom Committee (CFHK) Foundation.
Hong Kongers tried to remember the all-nighters, but now it’s prohibited, she said, and the rest of the free world needs to “take over this responsibility and continue to remember this day.”
“Because as far as we can remember, one day justice comes, and that is clearly a delay in justice.”
David Yu, board chair of the June 4th Genocide Memorial Association, pointed out that while the Chinese administration may seem strong, it now faces many “incompatible” internal issues.
David You, executive director of the June 4th Genocide Memorial Association, will speak at an event that occurred at the Communist Memorial in Washington on June 4th, 2025, to commemorate the Tiananmen Square Massacre that occurred in China on June 4th, 1989. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
“They’re being restrained and you don’t see them,” he told the Epoch Times. It’s only a matter of time before these issues explode, he said, “And the day they explode isn’t too far.”
Yu concluded his speech by expressing his beliefs about the ultimate collapse of the CCP, and Hui repeatedly expressed his belief that he would “live longevity for the CCP.”
“No governance is forever. I believe that authoritarians are not on one end. That’s their end,” Hui said. “So we need to prepare it.”
