peaceful city has entered the 20th day, and 20 days remain before the national congress meeting, where we hope the representative will carry out our request. lifting the martial law, we believe that liberty will rise like the sun, arriving on the long suffering land of the east. [speaking foreign language]

[speaking foreign language] >> we, the student leaders and others, slowly awake in our tent. on the golden bridge in front of the forbidden city, a line of soldiers march toward the flag pole. above the salute of the soldiers, the five-star red flag rised smoothly into the sky, and all the people at tiananmen square including our students, stand up to salute

our national symbol. for a beautiful moment, our student, and the soldiers, the commuting workers and the newly built statute of democracy, all seemed to be in a state of peace and harmony. nobody knew that it would all come to a tragic bloody end that very night. [speaking foreign language]

[speaking foreign language] >> as i sit here 20 years later, living exile with a little hope of ever returning to china. i feel compelled to remind people of the brutality showed by the leadership then in control of china. mainly shao ping. as most of us believe it was his sole decision. and i am compelled in this

democracy movement and behalf of those living in china today, to call on the current chinese government to bring freedom to our home land. and to have the courage not to be held captive of the actions held of the predecessors on june 4, 1989. [repeating in chinese] [repeating in chinese]

>> that night the chinese government sent massive soldiers and tanks into the square to crush our peaceful demonstration and any hope to consider our request for economic and political reform lead by students. we should be there for 50 days of calm protests and hunger strikes, like in 1976 when the

police came in and beat the leaders. we never expected a massacre, beijing city was outraged and the world shocked. [speaking foreign language] >> our dear friend, and other friends who are still in the back, we would love them to come to the stage, to the podium. [repeating in chinese]

>> the shooting started around 10 p.m., and by 2 a.m. we were surrounded by the army. two to three thousand workers and students were killed. many more were injured like our

dear friend today. we held one last vote and decided to leave the square. by a latest agreement to close the government. [repeating in chinese] [repeating in chinese]

>> each of our survival stories are different. two-thirds of the students were captured and served jail terms. others escaped from china and hiding into western countries. despite being number one on the list, i was fortunate to hide in china and escape 10 months after. with the help of over 200 members of underground rescue groups and eventually came to the united states. [repeating in chinese]

[repeating in chinese] >> today those of us who have lived and experienced the freedom and now appeal to the leaders of china to do the following things. [repeating in chinese] >> it has been 20 years, the current leadership bears no responsible for the tiananmen massacre. to acknowledge the massacre and

begin a dialogue for those who have suffered. to release the prisoners from june 4, 1989. to create a black list of those still in effect, and to have a truthful history of the massacre. the first request is that -- [repeating in chinese. ] [repeating in chinese] >> to revisit the highlights of reform, to study of taiwan and

south africa and other countries. it's clear that the reform doesn't have to lead the chaos of civil war. but to start with the press and free elections and opposition parties. [repeating in chinese] [repeating in chinese]

>> china's current leadership may not fear the well being of themselves and family if they reform. the rule of law and the process used in south africa and taiwan is a model that can be easily followed. [repeating in chinese] >> in 1989, i hope that the chinese government would realize and understand that different opinions can exist

peacefully like that beautiful june 3 morning. my hope and the hope of my fellow students that were met by tanks and machine guns and death of many and black listing and imprisonment. my hope is that chinese leaders will change, and the world is remembering tiananmen and watching. [repeating in chinese]

[repeating in chinese] [applause] >> now we have more words to behalf of all of those on stage. >> members of participants of the movement. we are making an announcement of what happened in 1989 we will never forget. what we are looking for is establishment of democratic of china. we will never give up. today the whole world is

[inaudible] which is based on an evil veiling. for sake of economic development, everything can be sacrificed including peoples lives. if there is any true meaning of the remembrance of 1989, that the whole world will be aware. and that's the only way. [repeating in chinese]

[repeating in chinese] [applause] >> thank you, we are most honored. thank you. thank you. [applause] i am now pleased to call to the podium mr. carl gishman, who is president of the national endowment of democracy. the foundation that is very important to democracy causes

around the world. thank you. if there is a gentleman from political productions, if he or she could come up and see me as soon as possible. >> mr. carl girshman. >> thank you. i want to begin by just saying that i am both honored and deeply humbled to be here today. and also to speak, immediately after these great heroes. many of them my friends have stood here on the podium. later this month here on

capitol hill, the national endowment for democracy will honor five brave cuban activists, three of whom are in prison, by presenting them with the goddess of democracy. the statue that was unveiled tiananmen square and stood for five days before destroyed by a tank, 20 years ago today. and that to gather those who were in tiananmen square, and countless other chinese citizens who had risen in protest in over 370 chinese cities across the country. from the northwest to the deep south. and it's since become a universal symbol of democracy.

which is why we have given it as our democracy award since 1991 to brave people in all regions of the world who are fighting for democracy. as you all know, there are some people today who think that the united states and other countries shouldn't be pressing china is issues of democracy and human rights. do they think there are more important things to talk about china, or that the chinese people and their view are somehow unfit for democracy and require a dictator. so the chinese government today is codled and appeased that there are some chinese democrats who feel forgotten

and abandoned. but they should not be discouraged than others and the right to think that democracy in china is not important or realistic. and for the same reason, what is overlooked by the disheartened democrats and the so-called realists. is the extreme vulnerability of the chinese system of government. certainly the chinese government feels vulnerable. if one is to judge by its behavior. otherwise why which -- why would it go to great lengths to erase the tiananmen uprising and crack down. indeed it's removed any mention of this event in textbooks or media. and arrests journalists who attempt to write about the

event or anyone who would speak to such journalists. it has blocked web casts. just yesterday the government sent block access to twitter and on youtube, all to shield the population from any hint of today's anniversary. when ju dian died four years ago, the city took caution after remembering how the death in 1989 sparked the uprising. it's declared extreme sensitivity, put alarmed police

on special alert. these are not the actions of a regime that feels secure. on the contrary, they are the actions of a regime that thinks it's sitting on top of a volcano that's about to erupt . or the center of an earthquake, hazord zone. the reason for this insecurity was spelled out in a lecture in beijing by a nationally known scholarists. the chinese system he explaned by strict rigidity. where there is no rule of law to protect people's interest or

prevent the rulers from abusing the people and lining their own pockets. the dominance feature in a governance of this abilities and the issues of people's legitimate issues, homeowner rights for urban residents and minority rights, that all of this becomes a threat to the social order. a rigid system is by definition bristled. it lacks resiliance, it can break under stress. and there are many sources of stress in china today. people have grievances because their rights are denied and they have no resource to --

recourse. to the authorities that are offensive. and they are angered by those things beyond their interest, such as massive corruption and degradation. given the widespread of the internet in china today, and the fact that half the population has mobile phones. citizens are more aware of their rights than ever before and more connected to each other. and as observed, the regime has lost its only source of legitimacy. which he said was the revolution. in his words, revolutionary discourse has distanced itself from us. revolution is no longer legitimate. the only source of real

legitimacy, what he calls resilient, is democracy in the framework of a constitution. in a system where the government is in constant dialogue with the society, through elections and the independent media. where the authority comes from the people and is subject to constant review. where conflicts are resolved lawfully and people are treated fairly. such a system will not break apart, because it's able to bend. it's not threatened by sparks. because it's made of the inflammable material of law. democracy and respect for rights. such resilience stability and democracy is the only way that

china can escape from what we calls the tragic fate of two millennia of the cycle of chaos and order. >> you are watching public affairs programming on c-span. coming up next, the housing budget committee for the operations units. and after that president obama's speech in cairo. and minority leader on the hill. >> coming up on tomorrow's "washington journal," david makovsky of the washington institute will talk about

president obama's middle east trip. "washington journal" begins each morning at 7 eastern. and later in the morning, we will get an update on the may employment numbers, live coverage begins at 9:30 eastern on c-span2. >> now a house hearing on the fiscal year 2010 budget on the military special units. this is about an hour. >> we can expect the members to drift in as we proceed. but want to be respectful of the admiral's time. and welcome, it's always a pleasure to see you up here, and certainly we appreciate the work you do for our country.

i have an opening statement i will submit for the record. i briefly want to say how important special operations command is to our national security, and how we respect the job that you and the people under you have protected our national security. some areas are known but other areas that may not be aware of but just as important. the holistic approach that the special operations commands has brought to winning that fight. without question, you are best in the world of targeting individual terrorists, either capturing or killing them. and that skill will have an important role. and you understand how important it's