lvhonglai
Member
- Oct 14, 2025
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What, ultimately, is the purpose of our commemorating June 4th?
The 37th anniversary of June 4th is fast approaching once again, and commemorative activities for the event have once more been placed on the agenda—a matter to which everyone is paying close attention and attaching great importance. Yet, ought we not pause to consider a fundamental question? We have been commemorating June 4th for over thirty years now, yet our methods of remembrance each year have remained almost invariably the same: hunger strikes, sit-ins, protests, petitions, and marches.
Have we truly given serious thought to what, precisely, is the ultimate objective of our June 4th commemorations? Is it merely to commemorate for the sake of commemorating? Is it simply to ensure we do not forget, and to pay tribute to the past? We have persisted in this manner of commemoration for over three decades; must we continue to do so for another thirty years—or perhaps even longer? Is this truly the form of remembrance that the martyrs of June 4th—those heroes we honor, who now rest eternally beneath the earth—would have truly desired?
If you believe that our commemoration of June 4th serves merely as an act of remembrance and mourning—and that this alone fulfills the hopes and expectations of the martyrs who now lie in eternal rest—then, by all means, you are free to continue holding to that view. However, if you feel that this is not the whole story—or that something vital has been overlooked—then we must engage in serious reflection: Why do we commemorate June 4th? What, precisely, is the most critical objective of our commemoration? What, fundamentally, constitutes the dying wish of the heroes of June 4th who now sleep beneath the earth? And how, exactly, should we commemorate June 4th so as to most expeditiously realize those heroes' final wishes—thereby endowing our commemoration with the greatest possible practical and political significance?
In my personal view, our act of commemorating June 4th—of refusing to forget it and paying tribute to its martyrs—constitutes merely one of the objectives behind our remembrance. Far more importantly, we commemorate June 4th to foster solidarity, to uphold and propagate its legacy, and to fulfill the unfinished aspirations of those martyrs. We do so to better advance our cause of resisting communism and promoting democracy, and to hasten the day when the Chinese Communist Party’s rule comes to an end—thereby enabling China to emerge, as soon as possible, as a nation grounded in freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Only through such a commemoration does our act truly acquire profound political and practical significance.
If we can reach a basic consensus on this issue, then—as we commemorate June 4th today, and in all future commemorations—we must earnestly consider and examine the following questions: How can we link our commemorative activities to the consolidation of China’s pro-democracy forces? How can we link them to strengthening and expanding these forces? How can we link them to helping the world—and the international community in particular—clearly recognize the true essence and nature of the CCP regime? How can we link them to encouraging the international community to completely isolate the CCP regime? And how can we link them to fostering the formation of an international united front against communism?
Only by integrating the commemoration of June 4th with the dying wishes of its martyrs, with our own goals and tasks, with the strengthening and expansion of democratic forces, and with the complete isolation of the CCP regime—only then can we avoid reducing the commemoration to a mere formality; only then can we endow it with true depth and breadth; and only then can we ensure that it possesses both political and practical significance!
Only when China’s democratic forces mature and grow strong—only when the international community fully recognizes the true nature and essence of the CCP regime, and only when the global community collectively sanctions and isolates that regime—will there be any hope of ending the CCP’s one-party totalitarian rule, and any hope for the cause of democracy in China. This, surely, is the true wish and expectation of the martyrs of June 4th who now rest beneath the earth; it is the greatest source of solace we can offer today to the bereaved families of those fallen martyrs—to the "Tiananmen Mothers"—and it constitutes the true significance of our commemoration of June 4th.
Author: LĂĽ Honglai
The 37th anniversary of June 4th is fast approaching once again, and commemorative activities for the event have once more been placed on the agenda—a matter to which everyone is paying close attention and attaching great importance. Yet, ought we not pause to consider a fundamental question? We have been commemorating June 4th for over thirty years now, yet our methods of remembrance each year have remained almost invariably the same: hunger strikes, sit-ins, protests, petitions, and marches.
Have we truly given serious thought to what, precisely, is the ultimate objective of our June 4th commemorations? Is it merely to commemorate for the sake of commemorating? Is it simply to ensure we do not forget, and to pay tribute to the past? We have persisted in this manner of commemoration for over three decades; must we continue to do so for another thirty years—or perhaps even longer? Is this truly the form of remembrance that the martyrs of June 4th—those heroes we honor, who now rest eternally beneath the earth—would have truly desired?
If you believe that our commemoration of June 4th serves merely as an act of remembrance and mourning—and that this alone fulfills the hopes and expectations of the martyrs who now lie in eternal rest—then, by all means, you are free to continue holding to that view. However, if you feel that this is not the whole story—or that something vital has been overlooked—then we must engage in serious reflection: Why do we commemorate June 4th? What, precisely, is the most critical objective of our commemoration? What, fundamentally, constitutes the dying wish of the heroes of June 4th who now sleep beneath the earth? And how, exactly, should we commemorate June 4th so as to most expeditiously realize those heroes' final wishes—thereby endowing our commemoration with the greatest possible practical and political significance?
In my personal view, our act of commemorating June 4th—of refusing to forget it and paying tribute to its martyrs—constitutes merely one of the objectives behind our remembrance. Far more importantly, we commemorate June 4th to foster solidarity, to uphold and propagate its legacy, and to fulfill the unfinished aspirations of those martyrs. We do so to better advance our cause of resisting communism and promoting democracy, and to hasten the day when the Chinese Communist Party’s rule comes to an end—thereby enabling China to emerge, as soon as possible, as a nation grounded in freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Only through such a commemoration does our act truly acquire profound political and practical significance.
If we can reach a basic consensus on this issue, then—as we commemorate June 4th today, and in all future commemorations—we must earnestly consider and examine the following questions: How can we link our commemorative activities to the consolidation of China’s pro-democracy forces? How can we link them to strengthening and expanding these forces? How can we link them to helping the world—and the international community in particular—clearly recognize the true essence and nature of the CCP regime? How can we link them to encouraging the international community to completely isolate the CCP regime? And how can we link them to fostering the formation of an international united front against communism?
Only by integrating the commemoration of June 4th with the dying wishes of its martyrs, with our own goals and tasks, with the strengthening and expansion of democratic forces, and with the complete isolation of the CCP regime—only then can we avoid reducing the commemoration to a mere formality; only then can we endow it with true depth and breadth; and only then can we ensure that it possesses both political and practical significance!
Only when China’s democratic forces mature and grow strong—only when the international community fully recognizes the true nature and essence of the CCP regime, and only when the global community collectively sanctions and isolates that regime—will there be any hope of ending the CCP’s one-party totalitarian rule, and any hope for the cause of democracy in China. This, surely, is the true wish and expectation of the martyrs of June 4th who now rest beneath the earth; it is the greatest source of solace we can offer today to the bereaved families of those fallen martyrs—to the "Tiananmen Mothers"—and it constitutes the true significance of our commemoration of June 4th.
Author: LĂĽ Honglai
