'It Crushed Our Hope For Democracy'
Updated: 6:25am UK, Wednesday 04 June 2014
By Mark Stone, China Correspondent
Lee Cheuk Yan is the Chairman of the Hong Kong Labour Party and the founder of the June 4th Museum.
In 1989 he travelled to Beijing to support the uprising and provide the protesters with money.
He told Sky News: "I was in the Beijing Hotel looking down in the Tiananmen Square, seeing the tricycles bringing bodies to the hospital.
"I remember them switching off the light in Tiananmen Square, and I would say that was the darkest hour of my life. At that time it crushes all our hope for democracy.
"Then I was arrested, detained for three days, money confiscated, and only allowed to come back [to Hong Kong] after three days of detention back in 1989.
"In a way, that was the turning point of my life, I promised myself I will dedicate my life to the democratisation of China, to continue our struggle in Hong Kong for democracy.
"It was a moment of despair. We had a hope ... Over the May, the spring time, you can (feel) democracy, and then suddenly the guns and the tanks come in.
"It really crushes our hope and into a moment of despair. And that was the really saddest moment of my life."
"Already a quarter of a century [has passed]. A new generation of young people have grown up, but then when you look at China itself, they try to erase all the memory of June 4th and ban any discussion of June 4th.
"So in that environment, it's a sort of brainwashing.
"This museum is to fill the void ... We hope by having this museum and preserving the truth, it is a struggle of remembering against forgetting.
"And also we hope that the truth [will] struggle against lie. Therefore, we felt it's very important.
"Twenty-five years after the massacre, we have a museum to commemorate those who sacrificed for democracy and at the same time to educate the public, especially the younger generation and the mainlanders, [to explain] exactly what happened and challenge the Communist Party, to reveal the truth."
Mr Lee dismisses the suggestion that the crackdown stabilised China, prevented civil war and allowed the country to become a global economic giant.
"I'm really very angry with that because it assumes that economic growth and democracy cannot go hand in hand, which is absurd ... It is totally compatible and I can imagine that if there [was] democracy 25 years ago, there would still be economic growth, there would be better distribution of wealth, and there can be freedom, people would be happier.
"One important thing is, now in China, it's all a culture of lies.
"People make money by lying, and get corrupted, and get a lot of money buy doing all sorts of immoral acts.
"If there is democracy, at least in culture, I believe, would not be a culture of lies.
"But there would be freedom, checks and balances, and a democratic China.
"I think corruption can only be totally erased if there is democracy."
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