US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Chinese government of intensifying efforts to erase the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre while tightening social control across the country. The statement comes as Wednesday, 4 June 2025, marks the 37th anniversary of the crackdown in Beijing.

What happened in 1989

The events leading to the massacre began in April 1989, when students, workers, and citizens gathered peacefully in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, calling for free expression, democratic reform, and an end to corruption. On the night of 3-4 June 1989, the Chinese army opened fire on protesters and bystanders in Beijing, killing several people.

What HRW has alleged

According to HRW, Chinese authorities have long banned commemorations of the massacre on the mainland. The rights body claimed that Beijing has taken no steps to provide information or compensation to the families of those who died, nor to prosecute those responsible for the killings.

“By burying the past, the Chinese government is also burying respect for fundamental rights in the future. The government should cease censorship of the Tiananmen Massacre, allow commemorations, compensate the victims' families, and free those imprisoned for pressing for accountability and justice,” said Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at HRW.

The Tiananmen Mothers appeal

The rights body noted that on 27 May 2025, the Tiananmen Mothers issued a statement, signed by 107 members, urging the Chinese government to “address, through lawful means and in a spirit of peace and reason, all the wounds and unresolved injustices left by those events and to restore justice and dignity to every family that lost a loved one.”

HRW further highlighted that last year in Beijing, the Public Security Bureau obstructed a New Year gathering of the Tiananmen Mothers for the first time since the victim advocacy group began holding such gatherings in 2009. The group said it had “not only failed to see any sincere efforts from the government to address the massacre of innocent people during the 1989 student movement … but instead witnessed the cold reality of government security forces abusing their power to obstruct citizens' legitimate social rights!”

The aftermath and accountability gap

Following the massacre, the Chinese government carried out a nationwide crackdown and arrested thousands of people on “counter-revolution” and other criminal charges, including arson and disrupting social order, HRW noted.

“The government has never accepted responsibility for the massacre or held any officials legally accountable for the killings. It has not investigated the events or released data on those killed, injured, forcibly disappeared, or imprisoned. Tiananmen Mothers have documented the killings of 202 people during the suppression of the movement in Beijing and other cities,” the rights body stated.

Call for global pressure

HRW called on the global community to renew efforts to hold the Chinese government accountable for past grave abuses. “Despite Beijing's censorship, intimidation, and severe repression, Chinese and Hong Kong people around the world continue to commemorate the Tiananmen Massacre,” Uluyol said. “Concerned governments should recognise their efforts and press the Chinese government to accept responsibility for the massacre, provide reparations, and hold the officials responsible to account,” he added.

With dissent inside China largely silenced, the burden of remembrance has shifted to the diaspora — a shift likely to define future anniversaries as well.