Beijing ( AsiaNews) - Chinese authorities have launched a campaign of "warnings" and preventive arrests to stop the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 4 June 1989, pro-democracy activists who have in police custody and even the heroes the Communist Revolution from being commemorated. The country is preparing for the Qingming festival - the "day of the ancestors", when the tombs of the deceased are traditionally swept clean as a form of devotion and care - which fell on April 4 but was celebrated at the weekend. Beijing wants to avoid social or political protests during the commemoration of the deceased.
The "Tiananmen Mothers" group - the relatives of the activists who died in the Beijing central square - report that the Chinese government has warned its members "not to go" to the graves of their dead . Zhang Xianling, mother of the student Wang Nan , escaped police control with her husband managed to reach the Wan'an cemetery in Beijing : "We've cleaned my son's grave, but later we also bowed in front of other gravestones dedicated to the memory of the victims of the June 4". The official number of those killed during the Tiananmen massacre was never made known: the Beijing authorities have set the figure of "around 300", while the central government has never commented on a number.
The police intervened even outside the railway station south of Beijing, where dozens of activists gathered to commemorate well-known human rights activist Cao Shunli who died last March 14, 2014 while he was in police custody because he was denied medical care. The police dragged demonstrators away to one of the infamous "black jails" somewhere in the country . The "black jails" are unofficial places of detention used by the police to keep "undesirables" off the streets without court orders.
Finally, the authorities have even prevented the commemoration of some heroes of the Communist Revolution . According to the petitions activist Xu Bixai, the police took away 6 buses "full of dissidents" who were going to the Babaoshan revolutionary cemetery. This holds the remains of many prominent Chinese who have distinguished themselves in the history , including the tomb of Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party secretary in the 80s, fired for opposing the Tiananmen massacre.