AP and AFP, BEIJING
Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago yesterday, in a further tightening of a years-long campaign to erase what happened from public memory.Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Relatives of the victims visited the cemetery on the anniversary for more than 30 years to read memorial statements with police keeping watch, Amnesty International said.
A police officer stands guard in Tiananmen Square in Beijing yesterday.
Hundreds of people, and possibly thousands, were killed in 1989 as troops advanced through crowds that were trying to stop the military from reaching the protesters in Tiananmen Square, a vast plaza in the center of the Chinese capital. The decision by the Chinese Communist Party leadership to send in the military was a pivotal moment in China’s modern history, determining that the market reform that transformed the country into the world’s second-largest economy would not be coupled with political liberalization.In Hong Kong, police stepped up security to prevent any kind of commemoration at or near a park where a massive candlelight vigil lit up the night on the anniversary every year until a clampdown following major anti-government protests in 2019.
