383 Georgina Higueras Dissent and Human Rights in China A man tries to halt a column of tanks that is advancing towards Tiananmen Square on the morning of the 4 June 1989. On the morning of the 4 June, the largest violation of Chinese human rights was committed when tanks fired at unarmed civilians. The Tiananmen massacre, which remains uninvestigated, marked a before and an after in the relations between the only party and the population that “has been present in the evolution of China”6 and became a huge taboo from the side of the national police force that increasingly needed the catharsis it would have got from a real investigation of the events. The following day, the US embassy in Beijing took in Fang Lizhi and his family, making the dissident, according to Henry Kissinger, the “symbol of the division between the United States and China”7. Fang, who hadn’t been present at Tiananmen although his principals were indeed represented there – such as the freedom of expression being “a right, not a gift from the authorities” – was accused of “crimes of counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement, before and after recent disturbances”. He took refuge in the embassy for one year until he was allowed to go into exile in the United Kingdom, although he actually moved to the USA. Years later, he criticised the government that received him for being concerned only with doing business with China, without 6 FANJUL, Enrique, Memoria de Tiananmen Una primavera de Pekín, Iberglobal Ebooks, 2014 7 KISSINGER, Henry, China, Barcelona: Debate, 2011, p. 443
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