Canada’s embassy in China has issued a statement commemorating the June 4 anniversary of the massacre in Beijing’s largest public square, where more than 30 years ago the government violently suppressed a student-led pro-democracy movement.
“We won’t forget [June 4,] 1989,” wrote Canada’s embassy in China in a June 3 social media post. “We remember those who made their voices heard peacefully in [Tiananmen Square]. We stand with those who do so today.”
The massacre, which took place on June 4, 1989, followed weeks of student-led protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where demonstrators called for democratic reforms after four decades under communist rule. On the night of June 3 and 4, the People’s Liberation Army stormed the square with tanks, violently crushing the protests. Casualty estimates range from the hundreds to the thousands. Accounts of the massacre are heavily censored by China’s state-run media….