Hong Kong Recalls Tiananmen Struggle

BEIJING — As tens of thousands of people held an emotional candlelight vigil in Hong Kong to mark the democracy movement crushed in Beijing 11 years ago, Chinese police Sunday quashed plans for private memorials and arrested a lone protester in Tiananmen Square.

Commemorating the 1989 movement remains taboo on the mainland, and uniformed and plainclothes officers patrolled the vast square to block protests. But the police presence was much lower than on previous anniversaries.

“Overthrow despotic communism” and “Freedom, democracy, fairness, human rights” read some of the banners scattered in Tiananmen Square by Shen Zhidao before police grabbed his arms and pushed him into a van.

This is the second year Shen, a supporter of the outlawed China Democracy Party, has protested in Tiananmen. Last year, he opened an umbrella covered with slogans and was promptly arrested.

In Hong Kong, which is a Chinese territory, 25,000 to 45,000 people attended the candlelight vigil.

Remembering the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who were killed when tanks and troops shot their way into Beijing to end student-led demonstrations, the protesters packed into four soccer fields in Victoria Park and sang patriotic songs.

Many children were among the demonstrators. Some passed candles and torches on the stage, symbolizing that young people will take up the fight for democracy in a movement whose support has declined as memories of the crackdown fade.

In Beijing, the smaller police presence underscored that the memory of the student-led democracy movement and its bloody end on June 4, 1989, while still strong for some, has faded for many Chinese. New challenges, such as the crackdown on the Falun Gong sect or unrest among workers and farmers, now worry the Communist government.

Police in two cities quashed plans for quiet memorials for the victims of the assault. In the central city of Xian, they harassed dissidents planning to meet Saturday night, taking away two people over the weekend, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democracy reported.

Eight Protestants who planned to gather for a prayer service at the home of a Christian doctor in Beijing on Saturday night were ordered away by police, said veteran activist Xu Yonghai.