On the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre on Sunday, Chinese authorities tightened access to the iconic square at central Beijing. Military suppression of the 1989 pro-democracy protests left an unknown number of people dead and discussions and commemorations are forbidden within the country.

Communist Chinese officials are also known to spirit away dissidents from the capital when the anniversary date draws near.

At Hong Kong, which was the last Chinese-controlled territory to hold commemorations, 32 people were detained on the eve of the anniversary, underscoring the city’s shrinking room for freedom of expression. 

Many of them were detained by officers around Victoria Park, the large public space of lawns and sports grounds that used to be the scene of an annual candlelight gathering to remember the hundreds or thousands killed when army tanks and infantry descended on central Beijing on the night of June 3 and into the morning of June 4, 1989.

Discussion of the seven weeks of student-led protests that attracted workers and artists and their violent resolution has long been suppressed in China. It also became increasingly off-limits in Hong Kong since a sweeping national security law was imposed in 2020, effectively barring anyone from holding memorial events.

The Communist Party relentlessly harasses those at home or overseas who seek to keep the memory of the events alive. 

At Beijing, additional security was seen around Tiananmen Square, which has long been ringed with security checks requiring those entering to show identification. People passing by foot or on bicycle on Changan Avenue running north of the square were also stopped and forced to show identification. Those with journalist visas in their passports were told they needed special permission to even approach the area.

Still, throngs of tourists were seen visiting the iconic site, with hundreds standing in line to enter the square.

Ahead of the anniversary, a group of mothers who lost their children in the Tiananmen crackdown sought redress and issued a statement renewing their call for “truth, compensation and accountability.”

Human Rights Watch called on the Chinese government to acknowledge responsibility for the killing of pro-democracy protesters.

“The Chinese government continues to evade accountability for the decades-old Tiananmen Massacre, which has emboldened its arbitrary detention of millions, its severe censorship and surveillance, and its efforts to undermine rights internationally,” the senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, Yaqiu Wang, said in a statement.

While Hong Kong, a former British colony handed over to Chinese rule in 1997, uses colonial-era anti-sedition laws to crack down on dissent, the persistence of non-conforming voices “lays bare the futility of the authorities’ attempts to enforce silence and obedience,” Amnesty International said.

“The Hong Kong government’s shameful campaign to stop people marking this anniversary mirrors the censorship of the Chinese central government and is an insult to those killed in the Tiananmen crackdown,” Amnesty said.

Beijing-appointed authorities at Hong Kong have blocked the Tiananmen memorial for the last three years, citing public health grounds. In 2020, thousands defied a police ban to hold the event.

Despite the lifting of most Covid-19 restrictions, the city’s public commemoration this year was muted under a Beijing-imposed national security law that prosecuted or silenced many Hong Kong activists. Three leaders of the group that used to organize the vigil were charged with subversion under the law. The group itself was disbanded in 2021, after police informed it that it was under investigation for working on behalf of foreign groups, an accusation the group denied.

After the enactment of the security law following wide protests in 2019, Tiananmen-related visual spectacles, including statues at universities, were also removed. Most recently, books featuring the events have been pulled off public library shelves.

Asked whether it is legal to mourn the crackdown in public as an individual, Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, said that if anyone breaks the law, “of course the police will have to take action.”

A commemoration was held in Taipei, the capital of the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan, which Red China claims as its own territory to be annexed possibly by force. More than 500 participants turned out to light candles, hear speeches, and chant slogans under a heavy rain.

An artist who is among the scores of Hong Kong residents who have moved to Taiwan, Kacey Wong, said the more than 30 years of commemorating the 1989 protests had made it a part of life. Ms. Wong said an artist friend, Sanmu Chen, had been detained along with others while attempting to stage a public street performance in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong.

“So, it’s all ingrained in our subconscious that we should care and practice our sympathy towards other people who are yearning for democracy and freedom,” Ms. Wong said.