Thousands join vigil in Tiananmen tribute
HONG KONG/ BE I J ING – Tens of thousands turned out for a candlelit vigil in Hong Kong on Monday in memory of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in and near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, as China moved to halt Internet searches related to the killings.
The Hong Kong demonstrators massed in a downtown park, holding candles around a June 4 memorial and a replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue that was built in Tiananmen Square before tanks and troops crushed the protests.
China has never released a death toll, but estimates by human-rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.
The anniversary has never been publicly marked in mainland China. Instead, China’s censors blocked access to the term “Shanghai stock market” on popular microblogs after the index fell 64.89 points, matching the date of the crackdown.
In another twist, the Shanghai Composite Index opened at 2346.98 points on the 23rd anniversary of the killings.
The numbers 46.98 are 4 June, 1989, backwards.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange said it was investigating.
For China’s ruling Communist Party, all discussion of the 1989 demonstrations that clogged Tiananmen Square and spread to other cities remains taboo, all the more so this year as the government prepares for a tricky leadership handover.
But for Hong Kong, which enjoys wide-ranging autonomy, the June 4 vigil is an annual event.
Terms related to the anniversary, such as “six four” for June 4, were blocked on Sina Weibo, a popular, Twitter-like microblogging platform.