I visited Tiananmen Square two years before the horrible events of 1989.


Beijing compensates mother of Tiananmen victim

Last Updated Sun, 30 Apr 2006 09:11:57 EDT
CBC News

Chinese authorities have for the first time paid compensation to the family of a protester killed during Beijing's Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy rallies in June 1989.

The student-led demonstrations denounced corruption and demanded more reforms. But officials characterized them as counter-revolutionary disturbances, sending in tanks and ordering troops to open fire on June 3-4, 1989, in a massacre that killed hundreds, or even thousands of protesters.

But the Chinese government has largely refused to admit any wrongdoing or blame in the massacre and subsequent crackdown, which saw thousands of people rounded up across the country and thrown into jail. It's still not known exactly how many people died.

Now a woman has been awarded 70,000 yuan ($9,700 Cdn) as "hardship assistance," 17 years after her teenage son died in police detention, says a news website run by an activist based in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province.

FROM CBC ARCHIVES: Massacre in Tiananmen Square

According to Tang Deying, her 15-year-old son, Zhou Guocong, was riding his bicycle home from work when police in Chengdu detained him.

Tang's complaint states that her son was beaten in a police cell. Photos of his corpse show bruises and cuts on his body, which was cremated soon afterwards.

Ding Zilin, a retired Beijing professor whose son was also shot dead by troops in 1989, welcomed the compensation. But she played down the significance of the move.

Ding, whose Tiananmen Mothers group has documented the victims of 1989, pointed out the payment was for "hardship assistance" and was not linked to the actual crackdown.

The group is demanding a full, open accounting of what happened immediately after the anti-government protests.