Tiananmen: Lockdown As China Passes 25 Years
Updated: 5:14pm UK, Wednesday 04 June 2014
Chinese authorities have been imposing severe security measures in central Beijing as the city passed the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Thousands of police and security forces, some armed with automatic rifles, were deployed across the Chinese capital.
Police trucks were stationed near Tiananmen Square, alongside fire engines and ambulances.
Tourists were still able to move about the vast public square, although uniformed and plain-clothes officers were said to have demanded identification from passers-by.
An Australian woman told the AFP news agency she was unable to visit the Forbidden City because she was not carrying a passport.
Reporters were also told to leave the area following the daily crack-of-dawn flag-raising ceremony.
Dozens of activists and other government critics were detained by police in the lead-up to the anniversary.
Sky's Mark Stone said: "I think it's fair to say that more than any other year since 1989 the authorities here are desperate that this event is simply not marked.
"There is a sort of collective amnesia across mainland China. People are not marking what happened back on June 4, 1989."
Hundreds of protesters demanding democratic reform were killed when soldiers opened fire on crowds gathered in the square in 1989.
Some estimates put the death toll from the massacre at more than 1,000 people.
The crackdown saw Chinese soldiers crush months of peaceful protests by students who were demanding political reforms.
Government censorship means that many Chinese people know very little about what happened during the crackdown.
The US has used the 25th anniversary to call on Beijing to increase political freedom in the country and release political prisoners.
"We've very clearly called on the Chinese authorities to release all the activists, journalists and lawyers who have been detained ahead of the 25th anniversary," said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.
"I think it's time to allow some more space, quite frankly, for discussion in their own country, particularly around this kind of anniversary."
Around 180,000 people are said to have attended an annual candlelight vigil in Hong Kong to commemorate the victims of the massacre.
Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents congregate in the city's Victoria Park every year for a solemn ceremony to mark the events of June 1989.
This year's event drew unprecedented numbers to the vigil, including an ever-larger cohort of mainland Chinese who travelled to Hong Kong.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Hong Kong's Huge Vigil For Tiananmen Square
Dengan url
http://anterinjemput.blogspot.com/2014/06/hong-kongs-huge-vigil-for-tiananmen.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Hong Kong's Huge Vigil For Tiananmen Square
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Hong Kong's Huge Vigil For Tiananmen Square
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar