LIVE: Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Holds Tiananmen Square Massacre Vigil 2024-06-04 00:26

Okay, speakers, one more time. If I could get you to come over here and stand next to me so we can follow the order. That's all of you, yes. That is all of you. Watch your back, Dr. Patterson. Yep. Okay, speak. Yeah. Are you good with leading him or do you need her to help? No, no, I'll be here. You're okay. Okay. Thank you. Fantastic. Okay. Hi, very nice to see you. Okay, so I'll line you up. So you'll go, I'll line you up. Okay, so you're going to go, Mr. Gordon, you're going to go over here. And then Francis is going to go next to Mr. Gordon. I'm going to put you right there. David, actually, can we switch? David, you go. And then Anna, where's Anna? She was somewhere. So we're going to go right here. And then Elphadar. And then Spencer. And then Piero's going to go next to you. Okay. Ready? Okay, fantastic. All right. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed guests. Thank you all so much for joining us here tonight. My name is Karina Lipsman. I'm the Director of Government Relations at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. And I'm here because tomorrow marks a solemn yet significant occasion as we gather to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. That started as a peaceful demand for democracy, freedom of expression. And to end corruption. When the Chinese government deployed military forces to suppress the voices of those advocating for change. The events of June 4th, 1989 remain etched in our collective memory as a stark reminder of the lengths of authoritarian regimes will go to silence dissidents. However, amidst the tragedy and suppression, the spirit of Tiananmen lives on a symbol of courage, resilience, and unwavering pursuit of freedom. As we reflect on this solemn anniversary, let us honor the memory of those who lost their lives, the bravery of those who stood in defiance, and the enduring legacy of Tiananmen Square as a beacon of hope for a better, more just world. May we never forget the sacrifices made and may we continue to strive for a future where the principles of democracy and human rights are upheld, cherished, and protected for generations to come. I would now like to invite Dr. Eric Patterson, President and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, to give his remarks. Thank you, Karina. Well, honored guests, thank you for joining us here tonight. Charles Dickens once wrote, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. And 1989 seemed that way. 35 years ago, the Eastern European countries were throwing off communism. You may recall, January 1989, the first elections in the Soviet Union, and then over the next several months, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, one by one, they threw off communism. They're free societies today. Those were good moments. But simultaneously, in the Far East, a similar movement was moving forward, an anti-corruption movement, calling Communist Party leaders to account, students demanding transparency and truth in media, democracy and human rights. Then sadly, that other movement was brutally crushed at Tiananmen Square 35 years ago. So tonight, we remember, but we remember with hope, we commemorate the victims. We don't know the number killed that day. We don't fully know the number in prison that day. So we remember their sacrifice. All of China's people in the days ahead. Thank you very much. Let me introduce my close friend, Chen Guangcheng. The Chinese Communist Party has never stopped using violence and cruelty to oppress the people of occupied China. After 1989, many people were exiled outside of China. For 35 years, they can only memorialize those lost in the June 4th massacre. They have no way to strike back. Meanwhile, in the 35 years after Tiananmen, the CCP had managed to use the West's high tech to create an internet surveillance system with facial recognition and movement recognition. It arbitrarily prosecutes those who call for the rule of law, democracy and constitutional government. At the same time outside of China, the CCP has infiltrated democratic nations like America, corroding their societies and upsetting the international order. The free world must do away with its policies of appeasement towards the CCP. The priority must be ending communist authoritarian regime. The free world must stand with the Chinese people to hold the CCP accountable for its crimes. The CCP is not only destructive for the Chinese people. The CCP is humanity's public enemy number one. It is a threat to the entire world. If democratic nations continue to make agreements with the devil, not only will democracy in China be without hope, America and other democracies will find their freedoms and universal values destroyed as well. For those who recognize the evil at the heart of the CCP, do not wait to take action to eliminate this regime that is antithetical to humanity. At the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, we not only remember the victims, we also seek justice from the violent CCP regime. I call on everyone to work together to eliminate the CCP. Let's fight for a better and more beautiful future for us all. Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much. And now we're going to have Mr. Gordon Chang. Thank you, Karina. And thank you for all for coming at this solemn night. Why are we here to commemorate an event so long ago? Well, because communism is against freedom. Communism is against humanity. Communism is against life. And China's communism, as Chen Guangcheng just told us, is evil. And the evil of that night, 35 years ago, haunts the world. It haunts the survivors of June 4th, and it haunts us. And it haunts us because the Communist Party of China, the CCP, will not leave us in peace. It will not leave us in peace because it believes we are an existential threat to it. An insecure regime in Beijing is worried about the inspirational impact of our values and our form of governance on the CCP, on the Chinese people. And this means, this is not anything about what we say or do. This is because of the way the regime views us. And that means coexistence is not possible. Coexistence is not possible because the CCP believes that there will be only one survivor. It will either be our free society, or it will be the People's Republic of China. And that means we are going to have to continue to fight for our freedom. We're going to have to fight for everyone, including those, 35 years ago, those brave Chinese citizens in Beijing and 370 other Chinese cities that stood up for their rights. We must never forget. But we are fighting more than just for ourselves or for the survivors of June 4th. Remember, this is a fight between freedom and oppression, a fight between democracy and tyranny, a fight between good and evil. Chinese people cannot speak for themselves. So we must speak for them, and we will speak for them. We will speak for them, and we will speak for everyone around the world who is not permitted to speak. So, fight for life. Fight for freedom. Thank you. Thank you so much. And now I'd like to invite Miss Frances. Hi, my name is Frances Tsui. It's an honor to speak in front of you and to stand side by side with you all to mark this important date in history. In Hong Kong, different generations grew up having different experience with the Tiananmen Square Massacre. For some people, they saw it when it happened. They lived to see it when it happened. And as you can tell, I was from a generation that was not born at that time. But growing up, it's not difficult for us to learn what's going on, what happened in 1989. Obviously, there was the Tiananmen Square Massacre vigil, annual vigil in Victoria Park every year. And we can learn about it from a lot of news sources, from our textbooks in Chinese history class. And for me, my first encounter was when I was 10, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. I saw that on TV and I was curious, so I went online and tried to find out. And as a 10-year-old, I was terrified. I went to the Victoria Park that year. And for that year, I finally realized and understood what it means to be a Hong Konger. The privilege I have to be born as a Hong Konger, to enjoy the rights and freedom that many of those who live a river across me do not get to enjoy. And they are killed for having those rights, to practice those rights. Then in middle school, we learned about it in Chinese history class. It's part of the modern Chinese history. But in the textbook, there's only a small little box with two paragraphs that describe it. I thought it was ridiculous, but I also thought for some people, some of my peers who have never heard of it, this planted seeds in them and perhaps one day they will be curious to find out more, just like what happened to me when I was 10. It has always been these little clues that helped our generation understood what happened in that summer in 1989 in China. And today, I know for a fact that that little portion on the Chinese history textbook is gone. It's eliminated. All these years, the CCP has been tackling these small clues in a way to eliminate and erase this history from its people and the people of Hong Kong. They first aim at the smaller clues and then onto the big symbolic thing, our annual vigil. They want us to forget it. They want to take away the chance for our children to know that decades ago, Chinese students used to dream of an open, democratic China. I think this is why we kept marking this date in the past 35 years with everything we could do. And this is why people like Chow Hung-tung insist in doing whatever she can to remind people of this day, even though it means she would get arrested again under the city's harshest law, even though she is already behind bars for doing the exact same thing. If June 4th is taken out from our textbooks, if the vigil is banned in Hong Kong, and if the goddess of democracy is removed from all of our universities in Hong Kong, we will find something else, we will do something else in somewhere. Because they could lock people behind bars, but they can't lock away our determination and our free will. And when people continue to resist in Hong Kong, betting on their life behind bars to speak the truth, they are counting on us, the free world, to wake up and make China pay for the cost of violating human rights. The world's inaction enables and emboldens China to continue its blatant lies and brutal crackdown on dissidents. Let us ask ourselves today, did we do enough to hold the CCP accountable for killing thousands of Chinese people, for demonstrating peacefully for freedom and democracy 35 years ago? When we first heard about the so-called re-education camps on Uyghurs, when we know about Tibetans that continue to face systemic oppression even to this day, did we do enough when the CCP blatantly broke its promise that it made in the face of the international community of one country, two systems in Hong Kong, stifling freedom that we used to enjoy and putting nearly thousands of pro-democracy ordinary Hong Kongers behind bars? Today and tomorrow, we should all ask ourselves, are we doing enough? And especially for key leaders and policy makers, how long is it going to take? And how many more people have to be imprisoned, tortured and killed for us to do the right thing? In some way, the Tiananmen Square massacre hasn't ended. The CCP's efforts to silence us and its campaign for global influence is a massacre on every single one of us. It is a massacre for freedom around the world. It is a massacre of humanity. So as we remember 35 years ago, the souls and bravery people that we lost 35 years ago in China, let's also remember the countless people who continue to suffer under CCP's rule. Advocate for them, support them in their fight for freedom and give them the voice, a voice that the CCP tries to eliminate. Thank you. And now we will have Mr. David Yu. Thank you, Karina. Good evening. I'm David Yu. I'm the executive director of the June 4th Memorial Museum in New York City. I'd like to give you a one-minute report about our new museum. This museum was founded last year based on the work we did in collaboration with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation here in DC. We had a special exhibit here and got generous support and encouragement by the foundation. The museum displays a large collection of artifacts from 1989 including flags, pamphlets, old newspapers, a bloody shirt worn by a woman hit by the armed police and the bloody banner used by a teacher to bind a bullet wound in Tiananmen Square. The museum received very good reviews and very extensive media coverage. The only problem is our fundraising is lagging. As of now, all of us work as unpaid volunteers. Now it's an honor to work for the museum, but we believe this all-volunteer model is not sustainable. So anyone who has these potential benefactors, please let us know and we'll vigorously pursue this lease. Now, why do we want to have the museum? First of all, of course, we want to remember the victims of the brutal massacre of June 4th, 1989. Secondly, just like the statue behind me, we want to use the museum to honor the Chinese people's heroic struggle for democracy 35 years ago. That is a struggle that in a sense is continuing. I want to reflect a little bit on my own pro-democracy experience. That experience goes back, believe it or not, 44 years to 1980 when I was a sophomore at Beijing University. I took part in the student-free demonstrations, student-free elections that year. Why did I choose to become a democracy advocate? At that time, there were two reasons. One is it was obvious to me that democracy was the most rational and the fiercest political system. The other reason, which was even more important to me at the time, was that I witnessed the devastation wrought by the Chinese Communist Party dictator Mao Zedong. And I felt that democracy would be a way to prevent such devastation from happening again in the future. It will also bring better lives for my fellow countrymen and countrywomen. Now, a rational and fair political system, a gateway to better lives, these are good reasons for advocating democracy. But when I advocate democracy today, my motivation, most of it, is quite different from what I had back in the 1980s. The Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, has now become a mortal threat to the whole free world. As Francis just described, it subjugated Hong Kong a few years ago, and it looks like it's going to try to subjugate Taiwan very soon. But the CCP's ambition goes far beyond that. It is no less than the domination of the world. Now, what does the CCP, what will the CCP do if it dominates the world? Why? It's obvious. It's going to enslave you, and me, and our children, and our grandchildren. Much like it has been enslaving the Chinese people for three generations, and Hong Kong people for three years. So I think the conclusion is obvious. The conclusion is obvious. The CCP must be stopped. It must be destroyed. Now, the CCP must be destroyed. That sounds like a good motto. The only problem is that it's not so elegant. How do you make that phrase elegant? Well, my friend Arthur Waldron, who is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, found a solution in history. Over 2,000 years ago, the Roman Republic faced a tough adversary in the city of Carthage. While a lot of people, a lot of the senators, thought Rome and Carthage could coexist, Tito the Elder believed that that's not possible. So after every speech at the Senate House, he would say, Carpago delenta est, which is Latin, meaning Carthage must be destroyed. So to borrow from Tito, we can say CCP delenta est. CCP must be destroyed. So I agree totally with Dr. Chan that there's no chance for the CCP and the free world to coexist in the long term. So that is my motto. CCP delenta est. It's easy to remember because delenta est sounds like it's deleted, right? It means, of course, that the CCP must be destroyed. And it is my fondest hope that some of you here today will adopt this motto as your own. CCP delenta est. CCP must be destroyed. Thank you. And now Mr. Su-Tran from the Office of Tibet. Thank you, Kavina. Dear brothers and sisters, tomorrow the Supreme Court, and this has been 35 years since the Tiananmen Square Massacre took place, the visionary Chinese scholars and courageous students who stood up for freedom and for the common rights of Chinese people were attacked by machine guns and armored tanks. The 80s was a time that China was emerging with liberal leadership, but reform to a democratic system was built due to the power battle. Eventually, this massacre led to many Chinese scholars and students who led the peaceful protests in 1989 exiled to the free world. The 80s is considered a crucial time for the Tibetans as we were going through a serious or intensive negotiation dialogue with the Chinese government. His Holiness the Dalai Lama laid down his vision of a five-piece plan, a five-point peace plan in 1987 at the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus, and expanded his details on the fifth point on means to negotiate in his Strasbourg Statement in 1988 at the European Union. When the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre took place, His Holiness didn't hesitate to criticize the Chinese government and Deng Xiaoping on this brutal crackdown on the Chinese students, and I'm here to represent the Office of Tibet and stand in solidarity with Chinese people to commemorate this significant occasion. Thirty years before the brutal crackdown, Tibetans have gone through worse tragic conditions. We have faced the darkest time in our history. The so-called People's Liberation Army invaded our country and occupied it in 1959. Over a million Tibetans were killed and tens of thousands of Tibetans were exiled to India with His Holiness. And the Chinese Communist Party even planned to assassinate His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and when their plan failed, the cannons were shot at his residence at Noblinka, which also led to the peaceful uprising of ordinary Tibetan people on March 10th, 1959. And we commemorate March 10th as the National Uprising Day every year, and we have the 65th anniversary this year. On the other hand, Tibetans are very lucky that His Holiness was able to make this great escape from the Chinese Communist Party. Because of His Holiness' visionary leadership for the Tibetan people and the global influence with his wisdom, and also because of the courageous Tibetans in Tibet with their indestructible resistance, the Holocaust is still robust. Even after the generations of transition, the Holocaust is still alive. I'm one of the third generation Tibetans who were born inside Tibet and escaped to India in the early 2000s, and there are hundreds and thousands of Tibetans like myself committed to this cause. And today, many Tibetan youth joined us. If you can raise your hand. And the Tibetan school were actually born in, many of them were born in the United States, but their faith and commitment to the Tibetan cause is relentless. The CCP wasn't able to win the hearts and minds of Tibetan people for 70 years. The youth generation both in Tibet and diaspora are more educated than ever, and they will continue to fight for our distinct values. The Tiananmen Massacre is well-known by the youth generation around the world, but the majority of Chinese youth inside China are still not aware of it. Even the Chinese students who are studying abroad, many of them are still remaining doubtful about this. This is something we can all work together to let them know the fact, the fact about the Tibetan struggle, the fact about the Chinese movement to freedom, the fact about the Uyghur movement, the fact about Hong Kong and Taiwan, the self-immolations, vast colonial boarding schools, concentration camps, forced labor, empty promised autonomy. All this we can have, but let more people come on board to understand our cause, and especially our Chinese friends in China. Sikyong Kampasering, the president of the Central Tibetan Administration, called for a cross-movement alliance in his address at the opening ceremony of the 20th anniversary of the World Uyghur Congress Summit. And his honest, dialogue-less version of universal value is based on our identity as a human being. We may designate ourselves with nationalities, ethnicities, and many other ways to differentiate ourselves. However, we are the same, that we dislike suffering, but always prefer happiness. So let us get together for a common goal of freedom for happiness. Thank you. Next, we have Ms. Anna. Good evening, everyone. I'm Anna Kwok from the Hong Kong Democracy Council. June 4th, 1989, the movement from Chinese students to call for a democratic China, and the horrific massacre committed by the Chinese Communist Party to silence generations of Chinese. That took place eight years before I was born. And 35 years later, I am now standing here, fighting against that very same regime, with the one million Hong Kong dollar bounty on my head, along with Francis, and along with many other Hong Kong activists. We have no home to return to, and we only have one goal in our mind. After decades of resistance against the Chinese Communist Party, from Chinese activists, along with Hong Kongers, Tibetans, and Uyghurs, the population of people behind bars, the population of people forcefully removed from their families, and the people in exile have only grown more and more rapidly. I did not intend to start my remark with such a pessimistic outlook, but realistically, that is the state of affairs we are in right now. The Chinese Communist Party that shocked and angered the world 35 years ago, with its massacre against its own country-loving people, is now the biggest authoritarian regime around the world. Repression inside China has carried on to lock up the younger generations. Uyghurs and Tibetans are facing more and more intense campaigns to erase their identities from the face of the earth. And Hong Kong, once a beacon of hope, a seed for democracy in East Asia, is now a city that has seen 1,866 political prisoners, according to a database from the Hong Kong Democracy Council. However, as we light our candles tonight, the light of determination for a free and democratic world stands unwavering in darkness. Many in Hong Kong are still fighting against fears, against the regimes, and even accepting the sacrifices they would have to make for simply remembering June 4th. In the lead-up to today, bookstores in Hong Kong have put up signs that read, May 35th, that would mean June 4th. Christian newspaper left its front page blank to respond to Hong Kong's today. Chow Hung-tung, a political prisoner in Hong Kong, who is now detained for exactly 1,000 days, chose to commemorate June 4th behind bars, despite the ramifications of her, her mother, and her friends getting detained and now arrested for Article 23. And about 12 hours ago, artist San Mu, went onto the street of Hong Kong, surrounded by dozens of police officers. He made gestures of June 4th with his fingers, silently. All these acts of remembrance, all these acts of resistance, make absolutely no sound. But they are the loudest, loudest screams for freedom that we can ever hear. People persist. They persist with a price, and they willingly pay that price to fight this battle. As they are stubbornly committed to the fight, we carry an extra weight on our shoulders to do more. 俯冲前行, a phrase we use commonly in Hong Kong, meaning to carry your weight and march on, is more relevant now than ever. Tonight, as we remember those who passed away for wanting democracy, we must think of the steps and the actions that we have not yet taken to stand against the authoritarian regime, facilitate the release of all political prisoners, sanction human rights abusers, protect human rights offenders with pathways and assistance, divest from Chinese businesses. These are steps that have not been taken, but should be taken, by governments and international community around the world. Always ask ourselves, always ask, what else can we do? One day, I hope that we commemorate and forth properly with our next generation, and without fears, in Hong Kong, in the Tiananmen Square, and in everywhere around the world. Thank you. And now we have Miss Elphadar. Hello, I'm standing here in solidarity with every one of you, and would like to greet you first. As we gather today to commemorate a somber anniversary, we do so under the shadow of ongoing atrocities. The memory of Tiananmen Square is inseparable from the current genocide against the Uyghurs, the crimes perpetrated by the Chinese regime, as part of the same horrific continuum. 35 years ago, the international community witnessed the brutal suppression of peaceful protesters in Tiananmen Square. The world failed to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for the murder of its youth, who sought nothing more than freedom. Today, the same CCP continues its terror, committing crimes against humanity through mass detention, forced sterilization, and other genocidal policies against the Uyghur population. These young activists of 1989 ask for what every human is entitled to, dignity and freedom. Yet, in the painful light of retrospect, we see that reform has not come. Even as the countries have engaged economically with the PRC, their technologically enabled brutalities have only grown. The goal remains unchanged. To eliminate dissent and crush any challenge to the CCP's absolute power. Today, the CCP extends its oppression beyond its borders, aiming to silence those who seek the basic right to dare at no religious identity and to be with their families. The Party's leaders are fearful of the truth above all else. As we stand here, we keep that flame of truth alive, a beacon desperately needed by the Uyghur people and others. Even the right to mourn the events of June 4th is denied within China and increasingly restricted in Hong Kong. The Chinese regime seeks to warp the narrative, downplaying the same evil that led to the Tiananmen massacre and now manifests in the Uyghur genocide. Yet, inspired by the bravery of the protesters, their families who refuse to forget and all who follow their examples, we must persist in our struggle. The world is no longer ignorant, yet despite some steps forward, our leaders have not demonstrated the resolve necessary to end these atrocities. We cannot cooperate with a regime that supports Russia's brutal war in Ukraine and perpetrates the largest mass detention of an ethno-religious group since the Holocaust, a regime that kidnaps nearly one million Uyghur children, tearing them from their families to be indoctrinated into idealizing the very state that murdered the children of Tiananmen. No empty promises from the Chinese government should be met with expectations or praise. We need accountability now. Until there is reconing for the history of Tiananmen, until the truth of 1989 is fully acknowledged, and until justice is served for the Uyghur genocide, oppression of Tibetans, Hong Kongers and many others, we will continue to remind the world of the true characters of the Chinese Communist Party. We will never forget. We will never be silenced. May these memories and the spirit of those who have suffered spur us onward in our pursuit of justice and human dignity for all. I want to end my speech with a quote from one of the Democracy Movement leaders, an Uyghur activist, Ökkeş Dölet. History cannot be erased by force, nor can the spirit of a people be crushed by fear. The courage of those who stood in Tiananmen Square echoes throughout the years, reminding us that the quest of freedom and dignity is unstoppable. We honor their sacrifice by continuing the fight for justice and human rights, wherever they are threatened. Thank you so much. Mr. Spencer. Good evening. Thank you for coming. I'm honored to be here with such incredible speakers who are well-known leaders here in D.C. My name is Spencer Wolfe, and I've been working since the NSL implementation with Stand With Hong Kong. Many of their leaders, their volunteers, whom are otherwise, but unfortunately, but fairly, concerned for their safety or their family's safety to be able to speak out publicly. I'm lucky and fortunate not to have those same concerns. We have worked to provide increased awareness to our Congress and administrations on the impact of the NSL on the people of Hong Kong, calling for the same basic freedoms, the same human rights and pro-democracy efforts that the people of China were fighting for 35 years ago. But of course, those issues aren't solved. They remain ongoing, which is why we continue to work so hard for meaningful changes. Throughout our work, we have seen tremendous bipartisan support, all the more impressive in a hyper-polarized climate for the people of Hong Kong and Taiwan, people of China who hope to live in a freer world, not under the repressive regime of the CCP. But changes will take everyone. So I'm calling on everyone to call your members of Congress, volunteer, join organizations to seek change. If you have access to social media, we ask that you continue to show it. So we can say with a united voice to the CCP that the fight for basic freedoms and human rights will never end, and the voices of the United States and across the globe are listening. Thank you very much. And lastly, if we can bring the table... That's okay, don't worry about it. That's okay? Okay, don't worry about it. Mr. Piero. Thank you, Karina. Now, tomorrow, we commemorate 3535, for it's the 35th anniversary of an event that revealed the true nature of the regime that rules in China, the massacre of China's best and brightest that occurred on the 35th of May, 1989. I know Anna knows what the 35th of May signifies because she referenced it. But for those of you who are looking somewhat quizzically at that, if we begin at 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, June 4th is May 35th. And why May 35th? Because that regime which seeks to censor, to control history, narrative, and memory, seeks to banish reference to June 4th. And it was a way that clever Chinese dissidents got around that system of censorship by referring to May 35th, so that the regime could not make things disappear down the memory hole. The Czech dissident from another era, Milan Kundera, in his book of Laughter and Forgetting, wrote that the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. And the preservation of memory is why we are here. Now, we often think of memory as casting back our minds to an event that happened in the past, which gets foggier as distance and time recedes. But that is not how one preserves memory. Rather, it is taking what happened in the past and actualizing it in the present. And that is why every Passover, for example, the story of the Exodus is told. And children are encouraged to ask questions so that the memory of what God did in exile in Egypt some 3,300 years ago is actualized in the present. That's what Jesus meant when he said, do this in memory of me. It's his sacrifice that is actualized at the present moment. And that is what we're doing here tonight. We're remembering the sacrifice of some of China's best and brightest, who sacrificed themselves for freedom, for democracy, for a future China. You know, it is said that Stalin once cynically remarked that the death of one man is a tragedy, and the death of a million is a statistic. And whether Stalin said it or not, there is a sad truth to that, as it is difficult for us to comprehend death in large numbers. But behind every, each and every statistic, there is a child who had a father and a mother, who once lived and breathed and laughed and cried as we do today. I can think of no one more dedicated to the preservation of memory of those who were sacrificed at Tiananmen than Rowena He, who, by the way, will be testifying tomorrow at our CECC hearing on the 35th anniversary. But she makes a point to memorialize individuals, to keep their memories actualized in the present, and not to be forgotten as a mere statistic. And from Rowena, I learned the story of a young high school student named Jiang Jielian, who was only 17 years old when he was shot through the heart some 35 years ago, come tomorrow. Jiang Jielian represented the best and brightest of China. His parents were professors at Renmin University, and they were party members. He was a patriot, someone who wanted the best for his country, to see it flower into a democracy. He is more than a statistic. He was a loving son to a loving father and mother, and there are so many more like him. And finally, I want to share with you something that... Over this past weekend, I went to my 40th high school reunion, and there was a senior who had just graduated, and she had a very unique and lyrical name. It was Delphi Lyra, and she spoke to a group of us alumni, and she talked about a grove of white pine trees that existed on the campus of our Northfield Mount Hermon. 69 pine trees that were planted in 1928 that represented 69 alumni of our high school who died in World War I, okay? That grove, and the meaning behind it, frankly, was something that I had forgotten if I'd ever had known it in the first place. And Delphi said something that was wise beyond her years. She said that one must choose to remember. So Ding Zhilin, the mother of Jiang Jielian, chose to remember not only her son, but also the sons of other mothers when she founded the Tiananmen Mothers Movement. It's a group of bereaved parents and friends who remember those who were sacrificed 35 years ago. We know her herself. She was a 17-year-old democracy activist in China in 1989 when soldiers rolled into Tiananmen Square. She chose to remember when she wrote her book, Tiananmen Exiles, Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China. And on 3535, we too must choose to remember. Remember what happened and those who were sacrificed on May 35, 1989. Thank you. Thank you so much to all of our speakers, our distinguished guests for joining us this evening. And I also want to point out that we have in the back here, Brittany, if you can raise your hand, we have free Hong Kong... Oh, they're paid, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I spoke too soon. We have, if you would not mind making a donation to get a free Hong Kong T-shirt, they're back here. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention, if you have not visited the Victims of Communism Memorial Museum, we are on 915th Street Northwest. That is right off McPherson Square, two blocks from the White House. Please visit us and thank you again for joining us tonight. And we'll do a moment of silence. Thank you again for coming tonight. Thank you.