China tightens access to Tiananmen Square on anniversary of crackdown

China tightened access to Tiananmen Square in central Beijing on Sunday, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

Additional security was seen around the square, which has long been surrounded with security checks, according to media reports.

In Hong Kong, police arrested four people while conducting stop and search operations near Victoria Park on Sunday, as people commemorated the 34th anniversary of the crackdown. Police said they had arrested the four for “breaching public peace,” according to reports.

Victoria Park, a famous site of yearly vigils, saw a barrage of armored vehicles and police deployed, according to the reports. Pro-Beijing groups held a food carnival in part of the park, while sealing off other areas with barricades.

Hong Kong was once the center of the largest vigils marking the anniversary of Tiananmen Square, when Chinese troops violently suppressed pro-democracy demonstrators and killed 300. But following a tightening of civil society freedoms in Hong Kong after the 2019-2020 protests, other cities like Taipei, London, New York and Berlin have taken up the helm of marking the anniversary.

According to Reuters, more than a dozen people were taken away from Victoria Park, including an activist who carried a bouquet of flowers, a man who held a copy of “35th of May,” a play on the Tiananmen crackdown, and an elderly man standing alone on a street corner with a candle.

“The regime wants you to forget, but you can’t forget. … It [China] wants to whitewash all history,” Chris To, who visited the park, told news wire.