Chinese police keep close eye on Tiananmen

Chinese police tore up a protester's poster and detained at least two people in Beijing's Tiananmen Square yesterday, as the country marked 17 years since local troops crushed a pro-democracy demonstration at the public space.

China's government has stood by the suppression of what it has called "counterrevolutionary" riots, saying it preserved social stability and paved the way for economic growth.

Chinese police kept tight watch on the square yesterday. An elderly woman tried to pull out a poster with apparently political material written on it, and had it ripped up by police. They then took the woman off the square in a police van.

Just before midday, a farmer tried to stage a protest, apparently unrelated to the 1989 crackdown, and was taken away in a police van.

A group of tourists at the square just after dawn tried to open a banner while posing for a group photo, catching the attention of police who quickly forced them to put the nonpolitical material away. They were not detained.

About 2,000 police were on guard in and around Beijing's "petitioner's village," a cluster of cheap hostels popular with people from the provinces who have come to the capital to complain to the central government.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people gathered in Hong Kong last night for a candlelight vigil to mark the anniversary.

Organizers said they believed around 40,000 demonstrators joined the vigil in memory of the hundreds of student protestors killed in Beijing in 1989.

The turnout at the event, which began at 8pm, was massive despite fears of heavy downpours which were expected to reduce the crowd in Victoria Park. Several football pitches filled with crowds made up of people of all ages, including families with children too young to remember the 1989 events.

The June 4 crackdown shocked Hong Kongers as the territory was gearing up for its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The bloody suppression fueled fears that Beijing would extend its authoritarian rule to Hong Kong.

The annual event in Hong Kong is the only one of its kind on Chinese soil commemorating the massacre and has drawn crowds of up to 100,000 in previous years.

Pro-democracy Legislator Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人) said he was "delighted" with the turnout and said it showed how Hong Kong people would not allow the memory of the atrocity to fade.

In an editorial yesterday, Hong Kong's Ming Pao daily urged Beijing to allow public discussion of the bloody events: "Reducing the differences between government and public views on the June 4 incident will undoubtedly help China's future democratic political development and social progress."

Wang Dan (王丹), a leader in the 1989 protests, said in an article published in Ming Pao that he holds out hope China will loosen its political controls.

``Although so far we can't see any loosening, personally I'm confident that day will come,'' he said.

``Until the government reverses its position [on the 1989 protests], ordinary people won't easily forget the crackdown,'' Wang wrote.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權), who is in Yunnan Province for a conference, urged his fellow citizens to look at the June 4 crackdown practically.

"China has undergone a level of change that has gained the world's attention in the past 17 years. These changes have brought much prosperity to Hong Kong ... so Hong Kong people can make an objective judgment," Tsang said.