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The Tiananmen Square Massacre – 30 Years Later

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  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: June 4, 2019, 19:00 – 21:00

On the night of 3–4 June 1989, the Chinese People’s Army sealed off the area around Tiananmen Square and attacked crowds of students who had been gathering there since April to protest human rights violations, the denial of political rights, high levels of corruption, inflation, an outmoded approach to education and growing social divisions. To this day it is not known exactly how many protesters died during the military operation. In China there is a total information blackout regarding the Tiananmen Square massacre.

What preceded the deployment of military forces? Why did the Chinese leadership decide to quell the protests? How does today’s China handle the legacy of the protests and their subsequent violent suppression? Are such mass protests at all possible in China now? And is there any chance whatever of the democracy movement being continued today?

Taking part in the debate will be sinologist Martin Hála of Sinopsis, sinologist Olga Lomová of Charles University’s Faculty of Arts and journalist and long-time China correspondent Tomáš Etzler.

Chaired by Kateřina Procházková. Erik Black, cultural attaché of the U.S. Embassy in Prague, who in the past worked at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, will deliver an opening address.

Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with Sinopsis and the U.S. Embassy in Prague. 

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