The Chinese government is intensifying efforts to erase the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre while strengthening social control throughout the country, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Tiananmen Massacre was precipitated by the peaceful gathering in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and other Chinese cities in April 1989 of students, workers, and others calling for free expression, democratic reform, and an end to corruption. On June 3-4, People's Liberation Army soldiers opened fire upon and killed numerous protesters and bystanders in Beijing. Chinese authorities have long banned commemorations of the massacre on the mainland. No steps have been taken to provide information or compensation to the families of those who died or to prosecute those responsible for the killings.
"By burying the past, the Chinese government is also burying respect for fundamental rights in the future," said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The government should cease censorship of the Tiananmen Massacre, allow commemorations, compensate the victims' families, and free those imprisoned for pressing for accountability and justice."
On December 28, 2025, in Beijing, the Public Security Bureau obstructed a New Year gathering of the Tiananmen Mothers for the first time since the victim advocacy group began holding such gatherings in 2009. The group said that they "not only failed to see any sincere efforts from the government to address the massacre of innocent people during the 1989 student movement … but instead witnessed the cold reality of government security forces abusing their power to obstruct citizens' legitimate social rights!"
On May 27, 2026, the Tiananmen Mothers issued a statement, signed by 107 members, urging the Chinese government to "address, through lawful means and in a spirit of peace and reason, all the wounds and unresolved injustices left by those events, and to restore justice and dignity to every family that lost a loved one."
One important development of the past year was the leak in November 2025 of six hours of footage of the secret military trial of Gen. Xu Qinxian (徐勤先), who had long been said to have resisted the top leadership's orders to use force against protesters. In this previously unreleased footage, filmed on March 17, 1990, General Xu said: "I hoped primarily to resolve the issue by political means.… I had doubts about whether acting this way [using force] was right or wrong … and I made suggestions [that] were not adopted. The order was conveyed … as for myself as a commander, I did not want to take part." Xu was reportedly sentenced to five years in prison and died in 2021.
The mainland authorities strictly censor anything related to Tiananmen Square, notably the famous "tank man" image. ABC News in Australia previously reported that even an image of "one banana and four apples in a line" could be flagged by the censorship algorithm as a reference to a man blocking a line of tanks.
In Hong Kong, more than three decades of annual commemorations of the massacre drew hundreds of thousands of people. The Hong Kong authorities first banned the annual vigil on Covid-19 grounds in 2020 and 2021, and in 2021 also forced the vigil organizer, the Hong Kong Alliance, and its June 4 Museum to close. Since 2022, Victoria Park, the traditional vigil site, has hosted a "patriotic food carnival" around the massacre dates.
On May 19, a Hong Kong court concluded final arguments in the national security trial of the Hong Kong Alliance and its two former leaders-Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung-on charges of "inciting subversion" under the National Security Law, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. A verdict is expected in July.
Despite the crackdown, some people in Hong Kong have still sought to commemorate the massacre. During the 2025 anniversary, Hong Kong police briefly detained 10 people between the ages of 15 and 69 for investigation on suspicion of "breaching the peace," and arrested 2 others for "behaving suspiciously."
Police also prevented members of the now-disbanded pro-democracy political party, the League of Social Democrats, from reaching Victoria Park to commemorate the massacre.
Since 2020, censorship in Hong Kong surrounding the Tiananmen Massacre has increasingly come to resemble the strict controls long imposed in mainland China. The Hong Kong Free Press reported that the owner of a car bearing the license plate "US 8964," which could be interpreted as June 4, 1989, received anonymous letters containing his personal information, photos of his car, and allegations that he might be violating the National Security Law.
In 2025, shortly before the 36th anniversary of the massacre, the owner shipped his vehicle abroad and said that the situation in Hong Kong "changed so rapidly that it reached a point where it became unacceptable to me and my family."
Diaspora groups and anonymous social media accounts around the world have in recent years held public discussions, exhibitions, and gatherings, and published essays to commemorate the crackdown. In 2026, commemorations are planned in more than 30 cities in 7 countries including Australia, Canada, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Following the Tiananmen Massacre, the Chinese government carried out a nationwide crackdown and arrested thousands of people on "counter-revolution" and other criminal charges, including arson and disrupting social order.
The government has never accepted responsibility for the massacre or held any officials legally accountable for the killings. It has not investigated the events or released data on those killed, injured, forcibly disappeared, or imprisoned. Tiananmen Mothers have documented the killings of 202 people during the suppression of the movement in Beijing and other cities.
The government has disregarded calls for justice for the massacre. US government sanctions imposed in response to the massacre have over the years been weakened or evaded. The lack of meaningful international sanctions has facilitated Beijing's poor human rights record in the ensuing decades, Human Rights Watch said.
The Chinese government should:
- Respect the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and end harassment and arbitrary detention of those who challenge the official account of the Tiananmen Massacre;
- Meet with and apologize to members of the Tiananmen Mothers, publish the names of all who died or were wrongfully imprisoned, and appropriately compensate the victims' families;
- Permit an independent public inquiry into the Tiananmen Massacre and its aftermath, and promptly publish the findings and conclusions;
- Allow without conditions the return of Chinese citizens who were exiled due to their connections to the events of 1989; and
- Investigate all government and military officials who planned or ordered the unlawful use of lethal force against demonstrators and appropriately prosecute them.
Foreign governments should renew efforts to hold the Chinese government accountable for past grave abuses.
"Despite Beijing's censorship, intimidation, and severe repression, Chinese and Hong Kong people around the world continue to commemorate the Tiananmen Massacre," Uluyol said. "Concerned governments should recognize their efforts and press the Chinese government to accept responsibility for the massacre, provide reparations, and hold the officials responsible to account."
