China ignores Tiananmen anniversary
Beijing largely ignored the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre with state media maintaining its usual blackout on the violent crackdown and dissidents planning low-key commemorations.
The capital was calm, 17 years after the People's Liberation Army moved in to quell six weeks of democracy protests on the square, gunning down hundreds, if not thousands, of unarmed protesters and citizens.
Groups of Chinese and foreign tourists queued as usual on the square to get into the mausoleum of Mao Zedong and the Forbidden City, with a few police vehicles seen in the area.
Relatives of those killed in the clampdown, still fighting for those responsible to be brought to justice, reported increased surveillance in the run-up to the anniversary.
There was nothing to suggest that the government intended to use the anniversary to change its position on the "incident," which it maintains was necessary to prevent a counter-revolutionary uprising.
"The political incident happened last century. We have already reached a conclusion on that, I have nothing new to add," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a briefing last week.
Those who lost relatives were to hold ceremonies under the watchful eye of police.
Zhang Xueling, a Beijing woman whose son was one of those shot dead planned to go to the Wan'an Cemetery in the west of the capital.
"Every year on June 4, relatives of the victims gather together at the cemetery," she told AFP. "We all feel very sad and try to comfort each other. Of course, the police are always there."
She said police behavior at the cemetery had become more brazen in recent years, as plain-clothes officers had been replaced with officers in full uniform, often openly filming the memorial ceremonies.
"At the entrance of the cemetery there is a sign saying that Chinese and foreign journalist interviews are banned," she said.
"But we hope the government will give up evil and return to good and allow us to hold the ceremony."
Jiang Peikun, the father of a young Tiananmen victim, said police had been posted outside his Beijing flat since early in the week.
"Every year police call us and other relatives to ask when and where we plan to go," Jiang said.
Outside Beijing, quiet ceremonies were also being prepared.
One of them was Lin Mu, the former secretary of 1980s reformist Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang.
"I don't have special activities planned outside, but I do intend to hold a memorial ceremony at home," said Lin, now a prominent dissident voice, talking to AFP by phone from his home in the northwestern city of Xi'an.
He said the events of 1989 reverberated in today's modernizing Chinese society.
"Apart from June 4 there are a lot of other problems in China, like human rights," he said.
"There are a lot of rights infringement cases in China. The government says it is pursuing a 'people first policy,' but it's just talk, and it's not really followed up by any action."
The government has insisted to this day that the decision to quell the protests paved the way for 17 years of robust economic growth.
And while the nation's Communist rulers have undeniably brought material welfare to unprecedented numbers of Chinese, many still harbor immense bitterness.
Zhang Xueling described how her son was left helpless and bleeding after he was shot by military forces advancing down Chang'an Avenue in the early hours of June 4.
"Although he was shot in the head, he didn't die immediately," she said. "But the troops didn't allow doctors and students to reach him and save him."
barf: ) shows its true colors as a paragon of human rights on the 17th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre of unarmed civilians.