On the feast of the dead, authorities block the commemoration of Tiananmen victims
April 8, 2014 : Chinese authorities have launched a campaign of "warnings" and preventive
arrests to stop the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 4 June 1989, pro-democracy
activists who are in police custody and even the heroes of the Communist Revolution
from being commemorated. The country is preparing for the Qingming festival - the
"day of the ancestors", when the tombs of the deceased are traditionally swept clean
as a form of devotion and care - which falls on April 11 but will be celebrated at
the weekend. Beijing wants to avoid social or political protests during the commemoration
of the deceased. The "Tiananmen Mothers" group - the relatives of the activists
who died in the Beijing central square - report that the Chinese government has warned
its members "not to go" to the graves of their dead . Zhang Xianling, mother of the
student Wang Nan , escaped police control with her husband managed to reach the Wan'an
cemetery in Beijing : "We've cleaned my son's grave, but later we also bowed in front
of other gravestones dedicated to the memory of the victims of the June 4". The official
number of those killed during the Tiananmen massacre was never made known: the Beijing
authorities have set the figure to "around 300", while the central government has
never commented on a number. The authorities have even prevented the commemoration
of some heroes of the Communist Revolution . According to the petitions activist Xu
Bixai, the police took away 6 buses "full of dissidents" who were going to the Babaoshan
revolutionary cemetery. This holds the remains of many prominent Chinese who have
distinguished themselves in history , including the tomb of Zhao Ziyang, the Communist
Party Secretary in the 80s, fired for opposing the Tiananmen massacre.