Quiet reminders of Tiananmen in China’s capital of forgetting
- Beijing shows no obvious signs of the protests three decades ago but there is still some awareness of what happened
There were few reminders on the streets of Beijing on Tuesday of the bloody crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests 30 years ago.
But there were some signs of underlying tension and a handful of people marking the moment.
In Tiananmen Square, the epicentre of the demonstrations, security was as tight as usual and the national flag-raising ceremony in the early morning went off without a hitch.
But one American English professor watching the ceremony said she was aware of the anniversary.
“It’s a significant day to be here,” she said. “I think many of the people here would not know what had happened.”
Apart from Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe’s rare public comment this week in defence of the crackdown, Beijing has said little over the years about the protests.
