The following text is the original statement of the Tiananmen Mothers, translated and shared with permission by Human Rights in China.

Tiananmen Mothers’ 2026 New Year’s Gathering Obstructed by the Government

The annual New Year’s gathering of our Tiananmen Mothers group was, for the first time, unreasonably obstructed by the government and prevented from taking place.

The gathering was originally scheduled for December 28, 2025, at a restaurant in Chongwenmen, Beijing, to celebrate the New Year and the most important Chinese festival, the Spring Festival. Health circumstances permitting, the bereaved family members would actively participate whenever they were notified.

The June Fourth massacre is an indelible pain in the hearts of every affected family. The annual gathering brings warmth to every member present, offering emotional solace to their wounded spirits through shared experiences and understanding among fellow bereaved families. However, this deeply humane act of compassion has been canceled by the government’s public security bureau via administrative means, without any legal basis, through what amounted to coercive interrogations.

Thirty-six years have passed, and many parents from our suffering group who lost their children have passed away, still carrying their regrets. Several wives, husbands, and disabled individuals who participated in signing on to our cause have also passed away due to illness. From a moral and humanitarian perspective, their deaths are incredibly cruel.

The young wives who, with great difficulty, shouldered the burden of raising their young children alone have now all become elderly women over 60 years old. It is this vulnerable group that, upon deciding to hold a New Year’s gathering in 2026, not only failed to see any sincere efforts from the government to address the massacre of innocent people during the 1989 student movement and initiate dialogue with us regarding the June Fourth massacre, but instead witnessed the cold reality of government security forces abusing their power to obstruct citizens’ legitimate social rights!

The New Year’s gathering is a tradition of the Tiananmen Mothers group. Initially, it was a small gathering, but as the number of participants increased year by year, we held the gathering in a restaurant beginning in 2009.

On January 11, 2009, around noon, the Tiananmen Mothers in Beijing gathered from all corners of the city. This is a special kind of family! When they met, they either shook hands or hugged, exchanging greetings and stories. The atmosphere was exceptionally warm and intimate, far surpassing the closeness of even a typical family. Among those who attended this year, several were from the distant suburbs, and they set off early in the morning to arrive on time. This year’s New Year’s gathering had the largest number of participants ever, with 42 people attending, six of whom were attending for the first time. The excitement of meeting so many fellow bereaved ones for the first time was palpable.

The above is a description of the 2009 gathering by the Tiananmen Mothers group. Except for the three years of the pandemic in 2020, the gatherings have never been interrupted, until the 2026 New Year’s gathering at the end of 2025 was canceled without reason.

Our gatherings are just as described in 2009: we meet and express our emotions, sharing the joy of having survived so many years of hardship; we recall the painful memories of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and the harm it inflicted on our families, memories etched indelibly in each of our hearts; and we bid each other farewell with wishes for a safe journey and the hope of meeting again next year. What law or regulation does such a gathering, filled with sadness, respect, and human compassion, violate? As the Tiananmen Mothers group, we cannot accept this.

Image: 2014 Tiananmen Mothers New Year’s gathering

Image: 2017 Tiananmen Mothers New Year’s gathering

Image: 2025 Tiananmen Mothers New Year’s gathering

Justice and righteousness are on our side, and we will not give up our dignity and our rights as citizens!

Tiananmen Mothers Group

January 14, 2026