China Tightens Security on 27th Anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre

The Tiananmen massacre happened in June 1989 when Chinese authorities opened fire on thousands of protesters.

A photograph of Tank Man, the lone protester who stood to block the way of a line of several tanks during the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Beijing, is displayed at the June 4th Museum in Hong Kong, Saturday, 4 June 2016. (Photo: PTI)

• On the 27th anniversary of the bloody military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests, China tightened security around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Saturday.
  
  
• Police checked IDs and searched the bags of anyone seeking to enter the environs of the vast public space in the centre of the capital where thousands of students, workers and ordinary citizens gathered in 1989 to demand political reforms.
  
  
• Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were killed as tanks and troops converged on Beijing on the night of 3-4 June, 1989. The topic remains taboo in China and any form of commemoration, whether public or private, is banned. At least half a dozen people have reportedly been detained in recent days for attempting to commemorate the events.
  

(With agency inputs.)