China and Tiananmen payments
In a first, Chinese authorities have paid "hardship assistance" to the mother of a young man killed by police during the June 1989 crackdown on mass protests in China. But while this payout (about $8,700) is significant, few expect a flood of checks to other victims' families. In this case, the victim was young (just 15 years old) and ...
In a first, Chinese authorities have paid "hardship assistance" to the mother of a young man killed by police during the June 1989 crackdown on mass protests in China. But while this payout (about $8,700) is significant, few expect a flood of checks to other victims' families. In this case, the victim was young (just 15 years old) and was beaten to death by police in Chengdu, not Beijing, allowing the government to separate him - at least rhetorically - from the deaths that occurred at Tiananmen.
In a first, Chinese authorities have paid "hardship assistance" to the mother of a young man killed by police during the June 1989 crackdown on mass protests in China. But while this payout (about $8,700) is significant, few expect a flood of checks to other victims' families. In this case, the victim was young (just 15 years old) and was beaten to death by police in Chengdu, not Beijing, allowing the government to separate him – at least rhetorically – from the deaths that occurred at Tiananmen.
I asked Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, about the payment, and in an email to me, she wrote:
This compensatory amount is “silence” money; in order to receive the money, Tang [the victim's mother] had to agree that she would not take any further legal action regarding the case of her son.
This case may be used in the future as support for mass reparations for other Tiananmen families, but given that there is such international attention to this particular topic, it's unlikely that the Chinese government will begin issuing payments to victims they don't acknowledge. Some reports have pointed out that the families of mine disasters in China have received a larger payout than this family is now receiving. This case has definitely garnered media attention through an activist's Web site, but many Tiananmen victims have had their causes publicized and seem unlikely to be acknowledged or compensated by the government any time soon. This seems like a situation where the victim's young age may have moved authorities to settle, without having to acknowledge any responsibility for a "wrongful death."
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