Chinese activists nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Congressional Commission.

Remembering Tiananmen Square Massacre: U.S. Congressional Panel Nominates Chinese Democratic Activists for Nobel Peace Prize

“We must continue to remember the Tiananmen Massacre and never allow the Chinese Communist Party to erase it from the history books.”

On the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, a U.S. congressional panel has nominated Chinese democratic activists for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. This move seeks to preserve the historical event and applaud the Chinese people’s desire for freedom.

Thirty-four years ago, on June 3, 1989, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders ordered the military to remove the student-led demonstrators who had occupied Tiananmen Square for nearly two months demanding democracy in China. By the early morning of June 4, tanks and troops had cleared the area. Hundreds of students, if not more, were killed.

The CCP has never acknowledged the killing. Instead, its propaganda told the Chinese population that students were used by “foreign anti-China forces,” and soldiers were killed in violent clashes.

Recognizing the Brave Activists

This year, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), a bipartisan and bicameral panel, nominated three individuals who have made their marks defying the CCP’s draconian COVID lockdowns. These activists are from a new generation that continues the pursuit of democracy.

One of the nominees, Peng Lifa, also known as the “bridge man,” hung banners on a bridge in Beijing to criticize the zero-COVID policies in China and CCP leader Xi Jinping. He was arrested on the same day of his protest, and his whereabouts have been unknown since.

Li Kangmeng, another nominee and a university student based in Nanjing, held a blank sheet of white paper last November to protest zero-COVID and highlight the lack of freedom of speech in China. Her act inspired a “white paper movement” in which many opted to do the same in their demonstrations.

The catalyst for the movement was a deadly fire in a high-rise apartment building in Urumqi city, the capital of China’s western Xinjiang region, on Nov. 24, 2022. Before that, the residents had been under a COVID lockdown for over three months. People blamed the pandemic controls around and inside the building for delaying fire response and causing deaths, which many believed was much higher than the official tally of 10.

That month, a series of protests broke out in China. People in Shanghai, Beijing, and other cities took to the streets to honor the dead and to express discontent.

Remembering the Massacre

The CECC calls on the Chinese authorities to give a full account of all those killed, detained, or gone missing in connection with the peaceful protests in Tiananmen Square and in over 400 other cities in China. The panel seeks to ensure that the Tiananmen Square massacre is never erased from the history books.

Let us remember the brave activists who continue to fight for democracy in China, and let us never forget the tragedy of the Tiananmen Square massacre.