Security tight in China on Tiananmen crackdown anniversary

HK also increases policing, as activists in Taiwan and elsewhere prepare to mark date

Security was tight and access restricted to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, the 35th anniversary of the crackdown, while Hong Kong also increased policing as activists in Taiwan and elsewhere prepared to mark the date with vigils.

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.

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said in a statement on June 4 that “the memory of June 4th will not disappear in the torrent of history”.

Mr Lai, who was inaugurated in May as the leader of the democratic island that China claims as its own, added that Taiwan would “respond to authoritarianism with freedom”.

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