Observances subdued 7 years after Tiananmen Square crackdown
June 4, 1996
Web posted at: 11:55 a.m. EDT (1555 GMT)BEIJING (CNN) -- Police dragged at least one person away from Tiananmen Square Tuesday as mourners quietly marked the seventh anniversary of the army's clash with pro-democracy protesters.
A producer and cameraman from ABC News also were held for two hours late Monday after they shot footage of Beijing University from a car. Their tape was erased. The university district is where the 1989 demonstrations began.
Early Tuesday, the square was filled with the usual crowd of Chinese and foreign tourists. A heavy contingent of plainclothes police was there too, but unlike previous years, they did not prevent international journalists from photographing or videotaping at the square. Most of Beijing's 12 million residents stayed away.
"Beijing people don't come here on June 4. We don't really think about this day, but we don't forget it, either," explained one local resident who was on the square seven years ago when the army opened fire, killing and wounding hundreds of protesters.
The brutality of the military attack in 1989 and a heavy police presence on Beijing's streets during subsequent anniversaries have effectively dissuaded most Chinese from public commemorations.
But one young woman braved the certainty of arrest to carry a large bouquet of flowers to the Memorial to the People's Heroes, an obelisk in the heart of the square.
Police also took away two non-Chinese students and questioned them in a police car. Their nationality was not known; neither was the reason for their being taken away.
Wary of any protests, police on the square checked identity cards and questioned any Chinese people who looked suspicious. Public acts of protest or mourning are prohibited in China, particularly in the Square.
A sign on the memorial's platform put up after the 1989 crackdown warns against touching it or laying any flowers or printed matter without advance permission from the government. Violators, it says, will be sternly punished.
Seven years ago, the Tiananmen demonstrations began following the April 15 death of former Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang, an outspoken reformer ousted in 1987 for not halting student protests.
In the six weeks that followed, students staged massive marches from their distant campuses and later began camping out in the square. Workers and others joined them.
Why the crackdown?
The students initially demanded that Hu's reputation be reinstated. As the protests grew, their demands expanded to include the ouster of corrupt leaders and democratic reforms. When the numbers in the square topped 1 million, party elders and hard-liners feared their legitimacy would be forever diminished and decided to strike back.
Supported by tanks and other armored vehicles, soldiers began moving into Beijing on June 3, and in the early hours of the next day began firing into astonished crowds that tried to block their way. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, are believed to have been killed on the city's streets. (1 MB QuickTime movie)
Chinese officials insist no one died in Tiananmen Square itself. Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang explained the government's rationale for its repressive tactics then and now: China needs stability to develop its economy.
Most Chinese dissidents are in jail, in exile or in hiding, unable to publicly mark the crackdown. Most ordinary Chinese prefer not to discuss it, and even victims' families are often afraid to speak out.
Quiet mourning
Retired professor Ding Zilin said she commemorated the seventh anniversary of the death of her 17-year-old son quietly at home.
Ding and her husband lit candles and incense and cooked chicken, fish and shrimp for their son Jiang Jielan, who they say was shot late on June 3, 1989, as the tanks and troops moved in on protesters.
Ding and 30 other people sent a letter to China's legislature demanding a full account of the crackdown. A similar petition last year went unanswered, and so far there has been no reply to this year's letter, she said.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related story:
- Changes evident in China 7 years after Tiananmen massacre - June 4, 1996
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