World
After crackdown on Hong Kong, overseas communities carry the torch to keep Tiananmen memories alive
HONG KONG (AP) — As the 35th anniversary of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square crackdown neared, Rowena He, a prominent scholar of that bloody chapter of modern China’s history, was busy flying between the United States, Britain and Canada to give a series of talks. Each was aimed at speaking out for those who cannot.
The 1989 crackdown, in which government troops opened fire on student-led pro-democracy protesters, resulting in hundreds, if not thousands, dead, remains a taboo subject in mainland China. In Hong Kong, once a beacon of commemorative freedom, the massive June 4 annual vigil that mourned the victims for decades has vanished, a casualty of the city’s clampdown on dissidents following huge anti-government protests in 2019.
He was still reeling from the loss of her academic position after Hong Kong authorities last year rejected her visa renewal, widely seen as a sign of the financial hub’s decline in intellectual freedom. Despite the exhausting schedule of talks, the former protester in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in 1989 viewed this as her duty.
“We cannot light the candles in Hong Kong anymore. So we would light it everywhere, globally,” she said.
As Beijing’s toughened political stance effectively extinguished any large-scale commemorations within its borders, overseas commemorative events have grown increasingly crucial for preserving memories of the Tiananmen crackdown. Over the past few years, a growing number of talks, rallies, exhibitions and plays on the subject have emerged in the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and Taiwan.
These activities foster hope and counteract the aggressive efforts to erase reminders of the crackdown, particularly those seen in Hong Kong. In 2021, the city’s police charged three leaders of the group that organized the vigil with subversion under a 2020 sweeping national security law that has all but wiped out public dissent. Later, the group voted to disband. Tiananmen-related statues were also removed from universities.
Last week, under a new, home-grown security law, Hong Kong police arrested seven people on suspicion of alleged sedition over their posting of social media content about commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown. A Christian newspaper, which typically publishes content related to the event ahead of its anniversary, left its front page mostly blank. It said it could only turn words into blank squares and white space to respond to the current situation.
On Tuesday, the park that used to hold the vigil will be occupied by a carnival held by pro-Beijing groups.
However, attempts to silence commemorative efforts have failed to erase the harrowing memories from the minds of a generation of liberal-minded Chinese in the years after tanks rolled into the heart of Beijing to break up weeks of student-led protests that had spread to other cities and were seen as a threat to Communist Party rule.
He, who was 17 years old at the time, recalls that protesters like her took to the streets out of love for their country. When the crackdown happened, she spent the entire night in front of her TV, unable to sleep. After she returned to school, she was required to recite the official narrative — that the government had successfully quelled a riot — in order to pass her exams.
“I never killed anyone. But I lived with that survivor’s guilt all those years,” she said.
To preserve memories of the event, a museum dedicated to the Tiananmen crackdown opened in New York last June. It features exhibits such as a blood-stained shirt and a tent used by student protesters.
A similar museum operated by vigil organizers was shuttered in Hong Kong in 2021.
As of early May, its board chair Wang Dan, also a leading former student leader of the Tiananmen protests, estimated the New York museum attracted about 1,000 people, including Chinese immigrants, U.S. citizens and Hong Kongers. To expand its audience, Wang said he plans to organize temporary exhibitions on university campuses in the U.S., and possibly in other countries over the longer term.
He said overseas memorial events are crucial because mainland Chinese and Hong Kongers can see overseas memorial activities online.
“It can have an effect in mainland China because young people there all know how to use VPNs to circumvent internet censorship,” he said.
Aline Sierp, a professor of European history and memory studies at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said overseas commemorative activities allow the memories to travel and endure, providing access for other people and future generations.
But she said it can be “a double-edged sword” because adapting the memories to new places might risk fragmenting or de-contextualizing them in the future.
Alison Landsberg, a memory studies scholar at George Mason University in Virginia, said that overseas efforts carry the potential to inspire people from other places who are facing their own challenges in the pursuit of democracy.
To carry the memories forward, film and television dramas can be powerful tools for people to take on memories of events through which they didn’t live, she said.
She said overseas theater productions about the crackdown, which began last year in Taiwan and continued in London this year, have a greater possibility of making those connections and potentially reaching a broader audience.
“When you have a dramatic narrative, you have the capacity to bring the viewer into the story in a kind of intimate way,” Landsberg said.
Last week, members of an audience at a London theater were visibly moved, some to tears, after watching the play “May 35th,” a title that subtly references the June 4 crackdown.
The play, produced by Lit Ming-wai, part of the Hong Kong diaspora who moved to the U.K. after the enactment of the 2020 security law, tells the story of an elderly couple who wish to properly mourn their son who died in 1989.
Its director, Kim Pearce, who was born in the U.K. in the 1980s, said the tragedy had resonated with her from a young age and she was once moved to tears when she read the poem “Tiananmen” by James Fenton. Working on this project, she said, has further deepened her connection to the stories.
British theater-goer Sue Thomas, 64, also found the play deeply moving. “Particularly as a parent myself now, which I wasn’t then, which sort of made me think of it in a much more sort of heartfelt way,” she said.
At the theater, He, the scholar, served as one of the post-show speakers, sharing her struggles and the motivations behind her work with the audience. She said the play was so powerful that it made her relive the trauma of the past 35 years, leaving her in tears and causing her to lose her contact lenses.
“It shows that how much sufferings that people had to endure all these years,” she said. “If there’s anything we can do, I hope that we would bring the younger generation to understand this.”
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Ji reported from London.
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French President Emmanuel Macron sparked a firestorm of criticism after he interrupted a youth-focused session at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi on Monday, publicly scolding attendees for talking over speakers and calling the disruption “a total lack of respect.”
Video from the event showed Macron rising from his seat and walking onto the stage during the “Africa Forward: Creation in Motion” session, which featured artists and young entrepreneurs speaking about culture and innovation.
“Excuse me, everybody. Hey, hey, hey,” Macron told the audience. “I’m sorry, guys. But it’s impossible to speak about culture, to have people like that super inspired, coming here, making a speech with such a noise.”
“So this is a total lack of respect,” he continued. “I suggest if you want to have bilateral or speak about somebody else, I mean something else, you have bilateral rooms, or you go outside. If you want to stay here, we listen to the people, and we’re playing the same game.”
MACRON TO APPOINT FOURTH PRIME MINISTER IN A YEAR AS DEBT BATTLE TOPPLES CENTRIST LEADER
A screenshot of French President Emmanuel Macron stopping a session at the Africa Forward Summit in Kenya. (Reuters)
Macron was immediately criticized for his uninvited remarks on social media. A former member of Parliament from Zimbabwe, Fadzayi Mahere, called the French leader out on X. “Respectfully @EmmanuelMacron I don’t believe that it’s courteous or appropriate for you to come onto our Continent and talk down at people like this. They are not your kids. Don’t be condescending. Imagine if a guest of the state did the same in your country? Would it fly? I don’t think so.”
Another post from a Kenyan-Canadian lawyer with 3.1 million followers announced, “Africans don’t need @EmmanuelMacron’s permission to speak in Africa,” said Dr. Miguna Miguna, who in January announced he was running for the Kenyan presidency in 2027, according to local reports.
A report published Monday by Modern Ghana, the interruption carried a symbolic irony, as Macron had traveled to Kenya to promote what Paris describes as a more equal and respectful partnership with African nations, moving away from what critics have long viewed as a paternalistic post-colonial model.
The incident took place during the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, where more than 30 African leaders, business executives and young entrepreneurs gathered for discussions focused on economic development, innovation and cooperation between Africa and Europe.
Kenya’s Standard Media reported that the exchange “cast an unusual shadow” over the summit, noting that some civil society groups characterized the two-day summit as a “reengineering of imperialism.”
The moment underscored the balancing act facing Macron as France attempts to redefine its relationship with Africa following years of political tensions and military withdrawals from several West African countries.
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French President Emmanuel Macron, arrives at the White House, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, in Washington. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)
Earlier Monday, Macron told students at the University of Nairobi that “Africa is succeeding” and argued the continent needs investment to strengthen its sovereignty rather than dependence on development aid, according to Modern Ghana’s report by Mustapha Bature Sallama. The report also noted Macron acknowledged France’s own financial constraints during the remarks.
Macron has increasingly emphasized partnerships with African youth, entrepreneurs and cultural leaders as Paris recalibrates its Africa strategy amid growing competition from Russia, China and Turkey for influence across the continent.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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A vast majority of EU member states criticised the reopening of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale during a “heated discussion” among the bloc’s culture ministers on Tuesday in Brussels.
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Many ministers also expressed support for the European Commission’s move to freeze a €2 million grant to the Biennale Foundation for allowing Russia’s participation, several diplomats told Euronews.
The issue was raised by Latvian Minister of Culture Agnese Lāce, who called for preventing what she described as “the instrumentalization of cultural institutions by Russia.”
According to people in the room, a total of 14 ministers denounced Russia’s presence but stopped short of directly criticising Italy, which was represented at the meeting by Ambassador Marco Canaparo in place of Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli.
Several countries, such as Belgium, Spain and Poland, argued that culture cannot be used to whitewash the war of aggression launched by Russia against Ukraine and stressed the importance of avoiding any sanction circumvention by Russian individuals involved in the exhibition.
The Commission and Cyprus’s EU rotating presidency called for a suspension of funding, reallocating the Biennale’s money to Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Brussels has so far strongly condemned the Biennale’s decision to allow Russia to reopen its national pavilion, claiming that culture “should never be used as a platform for propaganda” and warning that the Russian stand could become a “platform to individuals who have actively supported or justified the aggression against Ukraine.”
In April, the Commission initiated proceedings to cut funding, notifying the Biennale of a breach of the grant’s conditions, which, if not addressed, could lead to the suspension or termination of the grant.
The foundation maintains that the event should remain “a place of dialogue, openness and artistic freedom” and that it cannot prevent a country from participating, as any state recognised by the Italian Republic can apply to join the exhibition.
Russia maintains a pavilion within the exhibition area and, under the rules, can independently decide whether to take part in each edition of the Venice Biennale. Its last participation was in 2019, as Russian artists withdrew in 2022 and the country did not present a pavilion in 2024, instead lending its space to Bolivia.
Russia’s participation in 2026 sparked controversy within the Italian government, as Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli boycotted the opening ceremony, while vice prime minister Matteo Salvini defended the “freedom of art” and even paid a visit to the Russian pavilion.
This year’s edition opened on Saturday, amid protests for the participation of Russia and Israel. The Russian dissident collectives Pussy Riot and Femen displayed slogans against Vladimir Putin while wearing balaclavas and topless.
The Biennale’s international jury, which will assign the main awards to the pavilions, collectively resigned after criticism for its decision to exclude from prizes those countries whose leaders are currently accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — His head, chest and hands strapped with body cameras, David Park deftly folded a banquet napkin the way he has thousands of times during his nine years at the five-star Lotte Hotel Seoul. Each of his motions is fed into a database that will one day teach a robot to do the same.
The hotel chain is one of many companies South Korean artificial-intelligence startup RLWRLD (pronounced “real world”) is working with to create an extensive library of human expertise, harvested from skilled workers across industries, to develop AI brains for robots that could be coming to industrial sites and homes.
It collects similar data from logistics workers at CJ, capturing how they grip, lift and handle goods in warehouses, and from staff at a Japanese convenience store chain Lawson, tracking how they organize food displays.
The goal is to build an AI software layer that can work in robots across a range of factories and other work sites in coming years, before potentially expanding into homes. RLWRLD’s engineers say replicating the dexterity of human hands is a key priority, reflecting their views that humanlike machines, or humanoids, will drive the field.
“I’ve been doing this about once a month,” said Park, one of about 10 members of Lotte Hotel’s food and beverages team being wired up to capture their techniques.
After folding the napkin into a tight, layered square, Park wiped wine glasses, knives and forks in a corner of a banquet hall as colleagues prepared for real services nearby. He complained lightly to an engineer that the cameras on his hands felt too tight.
South Korea focuses on physical AI
RLWRLD is among a wave of South Korean high-tech firms and manufacturers competing in the unproven yet fiercely contested global market for “physical AI.” The term refers to machines equipped with AI and sensors that can perceive, decide and act in real-world environments with some degree of autonomy, moving beyond conventional factory robots designed for repetitive tasks.
While it remains unclear whether these machines will fully meet expectations of transforming industries, they are central to South Korea’s ambitions to leverage its semiconductor and manufacturing strengths to become an AI powerhouse. The competition is tough, with U.S. tech giants like Tesla and a flood of Chinese firms pouring billions into humanoids and other AI robots.
Just as chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini train on vast troves of internet text, AI robots likewise require extensive data on human action to handle advanced physical tasks. South Koreans may struggle to compete in chatbots, where English language proficiency gives U.S. firms major advantages, but they see a better chance in physical AI, given their deep base of skilled workers in manufacturing and other sectors that could help train robot systems.
Robots are central to South Korea’s AI ambitions
The government last month announced a $33 million project to capture the “instinctive know-how and skills” of “master technicians” into a database for AI-powered manufacturing, hoping robots will boost productivity and offset an aging, shrinking workforce.
RLWRLD, which last week unveiled its robotics foundation model, an AI system for robots, expects industrial AI robots to be deployed at scale sometime around 2028, a timeline shared by major businesses.
Hyundai Motor plans to introduce humanoids built by its robotics unit, Boston Dynamics, at its global factories in coming years, starting with its Georgia plant in 2028. Chip giant Samsung Electronics plans to convert all manufacturing sites into “AI-driven factories” by 2030, with humanoids and task-specific robots across production lines.
“South Korea has a highly developed manufacturing sector and the focus is squarely on humanoids tailored specifically for those industries,” said Billy Choi, a professor at Korea University’s center for Human-Inspired AI Research.
South Korea’s AI push has unsettled labor groups, who fear robots could possibly take jobs and hollow out the skilled workforce long seen as the nation’s competitive edge, the very asset it’s now counting on for its AI transition.
After Hyundai’s union warned in January that robots could trigger an “employment shock,” President Lee Jae Myung issued a rare rebuke, describing AI as an unstoppable “massive cart” and calling for unionists to adapt to changes “coming faster than expected.”
“Mastery of skills is ultimately a human achievement — even if AI can replicate existing abilities, the continuous development of craft will remain fundamentally human,” said Kim Seok, policy director at the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. He said widespread robot deployments would risk “severing the pipeline” for skilled labor and urged the government and employers to engage with workers over AI to win their buy-in and ease job concerns.
Robots are trained on human behavior
Humanoids developed by U.S. and Chinese companies have displayed impressive physical feats, even long-distance running. But Hyemin Cho, who handles business strategies at RLWRLD, said the ability to perform delicate tasks with hands will determine whether humanoids can be used in diverse industrial settings and homes.
“Capturing motion data in real-world settings is extremely important and the quality of that data matters greatly,” she said.
After converting worker footage into machine-readable data, RLWRLD’s engineers add another layer by repeating those tasks wearing cameras, VR headsets and motion-tracking gloves. That data is used to train test robots, often guided by RLWRLD “pilots” using wearable devices. The process captures fine details such as joint angles and the amount of force applied, said Song Hyun-ji of the company’s robotics team.
One of RLWRLD’s labs occupies a cluttered, 34th-floor suite at Lotte Hotel. Scratched carpets are buried under tangles of wires and computing gear. Poles fitted with infrared laser readers stand in the corners. Beneath a chandelier, a rare trace of the room’s former luxury, a wheeled robot with black, humanlike metal hands moves back and forth with a low mechanical whir.
During a recent demonstration, the robot, guided by engineers, gingerly lifted and placed cups at a minibar, at one point knocking over a dish. The company’s latest test footage shows a more advanced system: a humanoid carefully opening a box, placing a computer mouse inside, closing it and setting it on a conveyor belt.
Most robots, including Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, use task-specific hands, like two or three-fingered “grippers.” RLWRLD is among a smaller group of companies developing AI for five-fingered hands that mimic human touch.
While five-fingered designs may not always suit factory needs, they could prove crucial as robots move into homes, where closer interaction with humans will be required, said Choi, the professor.
Hospitality workers provide valuable training data for machines learning precise or nuanced tasks — skills that could also expand their use in industrial settings, Cho said.
Although current humanoids would need several hours to clean a guest room that human workers finish in about 40 minutes, Lotte Hotel hopes robots will be ready for cleaning and other behind-the-scenes tasks by 2029. It also plans robot rental services for the hospitality and other service industries, with a potential expansion to homes.
“If you look at the entire process of preparing for an event in back-of-house areas, we think humanoids might be able to take over about 30% to 40% of that workload,” Park said. “It will be difficult for them to replace the remaining 50%, 60% and 70%, which involves actual human-to-human interaction.”
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