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Beijing (AFP) - Chinese police have detained several activists while others were placed under surveillance for the anniversary of the bloody 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square, which was heavily policed on Saturday.
On June 4 1989 military tanks rolled into the square in the centre of Beijing to crush pro-democracy protests, killing hundreds of unarmed civilians -- by some estimates thousands.
Nearly three decades after the crackdown, the communist regime continues to forbid any debate on the subject, mention of which is banned from textbooks and the media, and censored on the Internet.
Six human rights activists, including the poet Liang Taiping, have been held by Beijing police since Thursday after holding a private ceremony commemorating June 4, the Chinese NGO Weiquanwang said.
The detained activists were suspected of "provoking quarrels and fomenting unrest", the group said, adding another activist had "disappeared" in recent days in the capital.
As in previous years, the "Tiananmen Mothers", an association of parents who lost children during the violence, were placed under heavy surveillance in the lead up to the anniversary.
Tiananmen square in the centre of Beijing was also under tight security on Saturday, with guards at the entry points into the iconic tourist spot checking the IDs and passports of visitors more closely than usual, an AFP photographer at the scene said.
Around a dozen parents from the Tiananmen Mothers visited a Beijing cemetery on Saturday where many of those killed in the crackdown are buried.
They said they were outnumbered by security forces as they paid their respects at the graves of their children.
"We have been under surveillance since last week... 30 (plainclothes policemen) were at the cemetery," said Zhang Xianling, whose 19-year-old son was killed in 1989.
A resident of Sichuan was also arrested this week for selling alcohol with labels that read "89-4 June" and images of tanks, according to Hong Kong-based media.
- '27 years of white terror' -
The Tiananmen Mothers penned an open letter slamming the "27 years of white terror and suffocation" they have been subjected to by the authorities.
"We the victims' families are eavesdropped upon and surveilled by the police; we are followed or even detained, and our computers searched and confiscated," read the letter signed by the group's members and released the NGO Human Rights in China.
The letter also said they had been warned that all visits to the home of the group's founder Ding Zilin, who is now 79-years-old and in poor health, would be restricted from April 22 to June 4.
Ding was under increased surveillance at her home and the police had cut the household telephone line, Hong Kong-based media reported.
Calls to Ding's telephone number on Saturday were met with a recorded message: "The user you have contacted does not have the right to receive calls."
Meanwhile, the state-run Global Times newspaper ran an editorial in its print edition describing June 4 as "a normal day".
"This does not mean Chinese people have all forgotten about the turmoil. It is simply that most Chinese people tend to agree that no more debate is necessary over that incident," the editorial read.
The piece pointed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the unrest in the Middle East that followed the Arab Spring as evidence that China is "lucky that the rioters did not succeed at that time".
In Hong Kong, a planned vigil for those killed in the 1989 crackdown -- which is held annually and usually draws tens of thousands of people -- has exposed a rift within the city's own pro-democracy camp.
Young activists from the new "localist" movement, which grew out of failed pro-democracy rallies in 2014, boycotted the vigil, saying Hong Kong should push for its own autonomy, even independence, rather than the democratisation of the mainland, which is part of the event's main message.
The Hong Kong Federation of Students -- a founding member of the alliance that organises the vigil -- also stayed away this year, saying the event had "lost touch" with Hong Kongers.
Taiwan's new Beijing-sceptic president Tsai Ing-wen used the anniversary to urge China to "heal the past wounds and pain of the Chinese people".
"Do not let June 4 forever be unspoken between the two sides," Tsai said on her Facebook page, in her first public comments on Tiananmen as Taiwan's leader.
There were mass rallies in Taiwan in 1989 to support the pro-democracy movement in China, and Taiwanese civil groups will commemorate the 27th anniversary with a candlelight vigil in downtown Taipei later Saturday.
Tens of thousands at Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil despite boycott
AFP on June 5, 2016, 3:52 am
Hong Kong (AFP) - Tens of thousands gathered Saturday for Hong Kong's commemoration of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown despite many young activists turning their backs on the candlelit vigil as calls grow for greater autonomy from China.
The vigil, which each year draws huge crowds to the city's Victoria Park, has caused a widening rift in Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp between those who believe the victims of the crackdown should be remembered and those who see the event's message as increasingly irrelevant.
Semi-autonomous Hong Kong is the only location on Chinese soil to see a major commemoration to mark the military's brutal crushing of pro-democracy protests in central Beijing in 1989.
But young activists from the new "localist" movement say Hong Kong should push for its own autonomy, even independence, rather than the democratisation of the mainland, which is part of the vigil's main message.
Localism grew out of the failure of the 2014 student-led pro-democracy rallies to gain concessions from China on political reform for Hong Kong, and a growing number of student groups are now boycotting the vigil to hold alternative gatherings.
A small group of pro-independence activists ran onto the main stage in Victoria Park before the vigil began, demanding Hong Kong break away.
But the park still became a sea of candles as residents paid tribute to the Tiananmen victims -- organisers estimated 125,000 had attended, down from last year's 135,000.
They sang protest songs and chanted "Fight to the end" as footage of the bloody crackdown was shown on big screens.
One young student who took the stage said those boycotting the event did not represent the entire younger generation, to loud applause.
"This is a question of righteousness, so we persevere in coming here," a tearful Tong Hiu-yan, 21, told the crowds.
However, students at a forum at Hong Kong University said they felt little connection with the traditional commemoration.
"We're the new generation -- it is more meaningful for us to do this. We have to stand against the Chinese regime, but we also have to think about Hong Kong's future," said student Raven Kwok, 20, among hundreds who had gathered for the forum.
The president of HKU's student union, Althea Suen, said the fight was now about democracy for Hong Kong.
Building a democratic China was "not our responsibility", she said.
The Hong Kong Federation of Students -- a founding member of the alliance that organises the vigil -- also stayed away this year, saying the event had "lost touch".
- 'Never forget' -
Some in the park said the event could be improved by seeking more discussion with newly emerged groups, but that without it the memory of Tiananmen could die.
"I feel really sad about this, even though I wasn't born (then)," Cecilia Ng, 19, told AFP. "Many of my classmates don't know or understand what happened."
Despite lower numbers than last year, organiser Albert Ho said there was no such regular protest gathering "in the history of mankind".
After the vigil, scuffles broke out as around 300 protesters marched to China's Hong Kong liaison office.
The confrontation happened when police tried to prevent the group walking in the road, but the march resumed peacefully.
They threw a placard demanding China free all prisoners of conscience over the wall of the liaison office compound and burned paper effigies of former mainland officials blamed for the Tiananmen crackdown.
Hundreds -- by some estimates more than a thousand -- died after the Communist Party sent tanks to crush demonstrations in the square in the heart of Beijing, where student-led protesters had staged a peaceful seven-week sit-in to demand democratic reforms.
The protests are branded a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" by Chinese authorities and many on the mainland remain unaware of the crackdown.
On the mainland, police detained several activists linked to commemoration events while "Tiananmen Mothers" -- an association of parents who lost children during the violence -- were surrounded by security forces as they visited the graves of their loved ones on Saturday.
