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Hong Kong marks Tiananmen, Beijing blocks remembrance

Hong Kong, 4 June: Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers braved thunder and a torrential downpour to attend a candlelight…

Hong Kong, 4 June: Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers braved thunder and a torrential downpour to attend a candlelight vigil today marking the 24th anniversary of China’s bloody Tiananmen crackdown, as Beijing blocked commemoration attempts. A massive turnout filled the former British colony’s Victoria Park in an annual act of remembrance for the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people killed in the 3-4 June onslaught in Beijing in 1989.
In Beijing, police blocked the gate of a cemetery housing victims of the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators as part of a sweeping annual effort to bar commemorations. In a narrow street near Beijing’s Forbidden City, security personnel patrolled outside the former house of Zhao Ziyang, the former communist party secretary who was purged and held under house arrest for perceived sympathy with the protesters. Hong Kong and Macau, which reverted to Beijing’s rule in the late 1990s but have semi-autonomous status, are the only places in China where the brutal military intervention is openly marked. pti

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