Security tight in Hong Kong and China on Tiananmen crackdown anniversary

By Jessie Pang and Fabian Hamacher

HONG KONG/TAIPEI (Reuters) -Hong Kong police detained several people and Chinese authorities restricted access to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Tuesday on the 35th anniversary of the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, as cities in Taiwan and elsewhere marked the date.

Chinese tanks rolled into the square before dawn on June 4, 1989 to end weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations by students and workers. Television news images of a lone Chinese man in a white shirt standing in front of a column of tanks spread around the world and became the iconic image of the demonstrations.

Decades after the military crackdown, rights activists say the demonstrators’ original goals including a free press and freedom of speech remain distant, and June 4 is still a taboo topic in China.

The ruling Communist Party has never released a death toll, though rights groups and witnesses say the figure could run into the thousands.

In China-ruled Hong Kong, police officers tightened security around downtown Victoria Park, where large June 4 candlelight vigils had been held annually before tougher new national security laws took effect in recent years.

Police took away several individuals in vans, including 68-year-old Alexandra Wong after she held up a bouquet of flowers and shouted, “The people will not forget!”

Others who lit up their mobile phones in the park at night were escorted away and searched by police.

Over the past week, eight people were arrested for sedition under a new national security law, including prominent activist Chow Hang-tung, stemming from what media said were online posts linked to June 4.

“There are still forces that attempt to undermine Hong Kong’s stability and security,” Hong Kong leader John Lee told reporters, without mentioning June 4 specifically.

In Taiwan, several hundred protesters held a vigil on Liberty Square in downtown Taipei, holding up small LED candles and laying flowers before an altar with the numbers 89 64.

“The more they try to hide this event, the more effort we should put in to remember it,” said Juan Chung-hao, 33, a university researcher in the crowd.

Taiwan – a democratic island that China claims as its own – is the only part of the Chinese-speaking world where June 4 can now be remembered openly. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te and his government reject Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

“The memory of June 4th will not disappear in the torrent of history,” he said in a post on the anniversary.

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that Beijing “firmly opposes anyone smearing China and using this (June 4) as a pretext to interfere in China’s internal affairs”.

TIGHT SECURITY FOR TIANANMEN ANNIVERSARY

An official website for the Tiananmen Tower overlooking Tiananmen Square posted a notice earlier saying it would be closed for the entire day on June 4.

Time slots for visits to the square were also not available for June 4 on its official WeChat mini-app. Chang’an Avenue, a wide boulevard fringing the square where the “Tank Man” once stood, was closed to pedestrians and cyclists on Monday evening, a witness said.

Small groups of “stability maintenance” volunteers, or retirees with red armbands, have kept watch in central Beijing neighbourhoods since last week.

Guards have also been stationed on pedestrian bridges, a regular practice during politically sensitive periods.

On Chinese social media platforms, including WeChat and Douyin, users were unable to change their profile photographs, according to online posts and Reuters tests.

In the past, some online users have altered profile names and pictures with symbolic images such as candles around June 4.

“Thirty-five years have passed, and the authorities remain silent. All that can be seen on the internet is ‘A Concise History of the Communist Party of China’, which says that a tragic incident was caused by the student movement in 1989,” wrote the Tiananmen Mothers.

“We cannot accept or tolerate such statements that ignore the facts,” added the group of more than 100 mostly China-based survivors and families of victims of the Tiananmen crackdown.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement marking the anniversary of what he termed a “massacre” and in remembrance of the protesters he said were “brutally assaulted”.

“As Beijing attempts to suppress the memory of June 4, the United States stands in solidarity with those who continue the struggle for human rights and individual freedom,” Blinken said.

In the U.S. Congress, Republican Representative Chris Smith, chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, told a hearing that the events in 1989 “still matter for the Cold War competition that now shapes U.S.-China relations”.

He called on Beijing to make a full, public accounting of those killed or missing.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong highlighted the “brutal force” used against student protesters 35 years ago, and expressed concern about China’s curbs on human rights.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron also called for the protection of human rights, while the U.S. consulate and European Union office in Hong Kong lit candles in their windows.

(Reporting by Jessie Pang, Joyce Zhou and Marcus Lum in Hong Kong; Yimou Lee and Fabian Hamacher in Taipei; Laurie Chen in Beijing; and Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom in Washington; writing by James Pomfret; editing by Lincoln Feast, Clarence Fernandez and Mark Heinrich)