Free Republic

"Since June Fourth, the Chinese government has talked constantly about respecting its citizens' "right to exist." Yet five years ago [sixteen now] guns and tanks deprived countless outstanding young Chinese men and women of their "right to exist" in a single night. This is nothing but hypocrisy.          As the mother of a victim, there is no way for me to forget these boys and girls and men and women, including my own son, who died in pools of blood. I want the people of the world to know that they once lived in this world, that this world once belonged...

BEIJING (AFP) - More than 100 relatives of people killed in the Tiananmen massacre have called on the government to apologize as the 16th anniversary of the tragedy approaches. In an open letter by 125 relatives to President Hu Jintao, the Tiananmen Mothers group said the government's recent accusations against Japan for failing to acknowledge its World War II atrocities were meaningless because it has not apologized for its own transgressions. "You and your predecessors have wiped the memory of the June 4 massacre from the books and have covered up this despicable event from history," the letter said....