“I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE LAST YEAR AND CONDEMNING THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT FOR, UH, CONDEMNING ME.”: So I went to Saturday’s candlelight vigil outside the Chinese Embassy. Tomorrow is the 13th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Executive summary of the vigil: Small but hopeful. Here are some scattered thoughts and observations.

I didn’t know that in 1989, protesting students built a Statue of Liberty in Shanghai.

I had never seen the poster at Tiananmen Square, hung during the demonstrations, that read (in English), “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Photo captions detailed the ways in which the Communist government turned protesters’ deaths into propaganda: Goons hung signs around the protesters’ necks listing their “crimes.” The protesters were forced to kneel, then shot in the head. The government recorded it all for the official files, and for public consumption–the latter is known as “killing the chicken to scare the monkey.”

The gathering itself was very small, very amateurish (lots of people had trouble with the microphones), and almost entirely Asian. There was a lovely reporter with Radio Free Asia; I didn’t notice any other press. Guess it’s passe to have luminaries like Wei Jingsheng in town.

Wei looks like somebody’s dad. He was dressed in a t-shirt and khaki shorts. (Did I mention that this was not a super-big event?) He spoke in Chinese with a translator, and displayed his well-known sense of humor by joshing the translator a bit.

Wei, like some of the other speakers, discussed the divisions that have plagued the Chinese freedom movement. He said, “The apathy and lack of support for our movement from overseas Chinese [4 1/2 years ago, when Wei was released from prison] is perhaps understandable, due to the behavior of the people within our movement, which was less than commendable.” But, like the other speakers, he asserted that over the past few years the dissident community basically got its act together and stopped fighting so much. I suspect this is probably true; if it weren’t true, I doubt any of the speakers would have mentioned the infighting. If it is true, this is a terrific thing.

John Kusumi, founder of the China Support Network, probably had the most detailed policy prescriptions. These were a bit sketchy. He called for the 2008 Olympics to be taken from Beijing, on the grounds that there was evidence (he said) of an “Olympic crackdown,” as the Communists try to sweep all opposition under the rug as fast as possible. (I don’t know if it’s started yet, but I fully expect such a crackdown–other major conferences in China have provoked crackdowns in the past.) Kusumi also called for China to be treated like Cuba by the U.S. (He didn’t give details, just said that Cuba policy was a model for China policy.) I don’t think either of these ideas (revoking the Olympics decision and starting a China embargo) are good places to put one’s energy, so Kusumi’s speech was disappointing. I’d love for the Olympics to go somewhere else, but it won’t happen; and a China embargo is not even a good idea, let alone a politically feasible one.

Two men who led the 1989 student demonstrations also spoke–Wang Dan, who was in Tiananmen Square, and Liu Junguo of Canton. Neither said anything particularly unusual, but it was still wonderful to see such brave people. Both now live in the U.S. (as does Wei).

Gao Zhan also spoke; she’s the one I quoted in the title of this post. Here’s a synopsis of what happened to her. Her most memorable quote: “I feel a sense of guilt because over the 13 years [between Tiananmen and her own arrest] I allowed my anger to die down, my conscience to die down, and my memory to die down.”

If you want to help Chinese people struggling against their dictators, check out these websites: Chinese gulag; underground Catholic priests; free church for China. If anyone knows of groups who circulate samizdata (underground, suppressed literature) in China, please let me know–I know there are societies that produce tiny Bibles that are smuggled into China, but are there any groups that do the same with other books? [email protected]

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free….