Commemoration of Tiananmen protests smothered in China

China smothered Tiananmen Square with police yesterday to prevent commemoration of the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters 20 years ago, as Washington demanded Beijing account for those killed.

Tanks rolled into the square before dawn on June 4, 1989, to crush weeks of student and worker protests. The ruling Communist Party has never released a death toll and fears any public marking of the crackdown could undermine its hold on power.

China has changed dramatically in the past two decades. Market reforms have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and transformed China into the world's third-largest economy, making similar protests on the same scale highly unlikely today.

But wary of any sign of political dissent, Beijing has tried hard to erase any mention of the Tiananmen protests.

In a sign of Beijing's mix of confidence and caution, Tiananmen Square was open to visitors yesterday, with hundreds of police and guards present. On the 10th anniversary of the crackdown in 1999, it was closed to the public.

Chinese crowded the square to watch the dawn flag-raising ceremony that is now a fixture of official patriotic ritual. Many were visitors from outside Beijing and appeared oblivious to the sensitive date. There were no gestures of protest.

But some people came quietly to the square to mourn.

"Today is June 4, so we came here to commemorate it," said a man surnamed Wang.

Thousands in China-ruled Hong Kong attended a candlelight vigil yesterday to mark the anniversary.

By the start of the vigil, organisers said tens of thousands had already gathered, filling an area the size of six football pitches, with a target of 100,000 seen as possible.

"In 20 years, the knot of June 4 has not been untied," said Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, one of the organisers.

The 1989 killings strained ties between Washington and Beijing and the reverberations were evident on the eve of the anniversary.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on China to release all those still imprisoned in connection with the protests, to stop harassing those who took part and to begin a dialogue with the victims' families.

"A China that has made enormous progress economically and is emerging to take its rightful place in global leadership should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal," Mrs Clinton said in a statement.

China denounced the comments as "crude meddling".

"We express our strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Mrs Clinton's demands reflect views Washington has long held but represent a tougher stance on China's human rights record than Mrs Clinton has taken in her first four months in the job.