China and Hong Kong remember Tiananmen

5th June 1996

China and Hong Kong have marked the 8th anniversary of the June 4th Tiananmen square crackdown in differing ways. In Beijing, police cracked down on whatever dissidents there are left in the weeks approaching the anniversary. On the day itself, plainclothes police mingled with children flying kites in the square after evicting a group of pro-democracy students at gunpoint earlier in the day.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, citizens still in the dark about the future of democracy in their part of the world, staged pro-democracy demonstrations in a park. Organisers estimated the crowd at 45,000 and police at 15,000. Pro-Beijing newspapers ignored the event.

The digital clock in Tiananmen square continues to count down the days till Hong Kong returns to the motherland, now reading well below 400. The world watches on and ponders...