JUNE FOURTH
Evidence for a Future Accounting

June Fourth refers to the June 3-4, 1989 Chinese government military crackdown that ended the large-scale, peaceful protests in Beijing and other cities in spring and early summer that year, brutally killing an untold number of protesters and bystanders. For decades, the Chinese government has ignored persistent citizen demands for the truth, labelling the protests at first as “counterrevolutionary riots” and, later, a “political disturbance” and, still later, the June Fourth “Incident.” As part of its ongoing campaign of enforced amnesia to erase the memory of June Fourth, the government has for decades stigmatized June Fourth victims’ families and survivors, censored information, and punished public and even private commemorations of those killed. To support the calls for truth and accountability and to help preserve the evidence accumulated by victims’ families, HRIC has built an extensive documentation archive, in text, photos, and videos. The records include stories of how the victims lived and how they died; testimonies by family members of their suppression by the authorities and their arduous efforts in locating and connecting with those who were afraid to speak up in order to provide support; and their sustained demands for truth, accountability, and compensation in the form of statements issued every year on the anniversary of June Fourth.