A quiet Tiananmen Square anniversary displays China’s ability to suppress history

Security personnel stand on duty near the Tiananmen Gate which is under renovation on the anniversary of China's bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

BEIJING -- For most Chinese, the 36th anniversary of a bloody crackdown that ended pro-democracy protests in China passed like any other weekday. And that’s just how the ruling Communist Party wants it.

Security was tight Wednesday around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where weeks of student-led protests shook the party in 1989. Under then-leader Deng Xiaoping, the military was sent in to end the protest on the night of June 3-4. Using live ammunition, soldiers forced their way through crowds that tried to block them from reaching the square. Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed, including dozens of soldiers.

The party has tried, with some success, to erase what it calls the “political turmoil” of 1989 from the collective memory. It bans any public commemoration or mention of the June 4 crackdown, scrubbing references from the internet.

In recent years, that ban has been extended to Hong Kong, where a once-massive annual candlelight vigil is no longer permitted. Police said they brought 10 people on suspicion of breaching public peace to a police station for investigation. Three were still detained late Wednesday, while the rest were allowed to leave. Police also arrested a woman for failing to show her identity document and a man for obstructing police officers from performing their duties.

It is only in Taiwan, a self-governing island that is claimed by China but runs its own affairs, that large June 4 gatherings can still take place.

The crackdown reinforced Communist Party control

Tiananmen Square is a vast space in the center of Beijing with monumental, communist-era buildings along two sides and the mausoleum of Mao Zedong, who founded the communist era in 1949, on the south end.

University students occupied this symbolically important site in the spring of 1989. Their calls for freedoms divided the party leadership. The decision to send in troops marked a decisive turning point in the evolution of modern China, keeping the party firmly in control as it loosened economic restrictions.

Chinese officials have said the country’s rapid economic development since then proves the decisions made at the time were correct.

“On the political turmoil that happened in the late 1980s, the Chinese government has already reached a clear conclusion,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Wednesday. He added that China would continue along its current path of what it calls “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

Tiananmen Mothers, a group formed by relatives of the victims, made an annual online appeal to the government. Signed by 108 members, it called for an independent investigation into what happened on June 4, 1989, including a list of all who died. The group also demanded compensation for the families and a legal case against those responsible for the deaths.

The British and German Embassies in Beijing posted videos commemorating the anniversary on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, but they were later taken down, presumably by censors. The Canadian and German Embassies displayed images of a single lit candle on large screens facing the main street.

Hong Kong’s once outspoken populace has been cowed

In Hong Kong, a carnival showcasing Chinese food and products was held in Victoria Park, where tens of thousands of people used to gather for a candlelight vigil to mark the anniversary.

Hong Kong authorities first shut down the vigil during the COVID-19 pandemic and arrested the organizers in 2021. The moves were part of a broader crackdown on dissent following monthslong anti-government protests in 2019 that turned violent and paralyzed parts of the city.

A former district council member, Chan Kim-kam, said customs officers questioned her at her shop on the eve of June 4 after she advertised small white candles for sale in an Instagram post titled “June, we don’t forget.”

“You know, Hong Kongers have become silent lambs after 2019,” said King Ng, who was at the park on Wednesday.

Police were out in force to try to prevent any protest, and took several people away from the park on Wednesday. They included a young woman wearing a school uniform and holding flowers, a man who lowered his head in apparent prayer, and a man wearing a white T-shirt reading “Vindication for June 4. It’s getting closer and closer.” Police also questioned a woman who lit up a mosquito lamp, but eventually let her go.

Rows of electronic candles lit up the windows of the U.S. consulate, and the British consulate projected “VIIV” -- Roman numerals in reference to June 4 -- on one of its walls.

The British and Canadian consulates earlier posted social media messages about remembering June 4. Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997. The U.S. consulate posted a message from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on its website.

“The CCP actively tries to censor the facts,” Rubio said, referring to China’s Communist Party. “But the world will never forget.”

Taiwan seeks support from democracies against China

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te used the anniversary to position the island he leads on the frontline of defending democracy against authoritarianism. In a Facebook post, he drew a distinction between Taiwan’s multiparty democracy and China’s one-party rule.

“Authoritarian governments often choose to remain silent and forget about history, while democratic societies choose to preserve the truth and refuse to forget those who have contributed to the ideals of human rights and the dreams they embrace,” Lai wrote.

Taiwan transitioned from authoritarianism to democracy in a process that began in the late 1980s. It relies on support principally from the U.S., along with other democratic partners, to deter China from an invasion.

Several hundred people gathered Wednesday evening for a candlelight vigil in downtown Taipei’s Freedom Square. In the center stood a scaled-down model of the “Pillar of Shame,” a sculpture commemorating the protests that once stood on the campus of the University of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong authorities have placed bounties on some activists who have moved abroad. Other democracy advocates in the semi-autonomous Chinese city remain in jail or intimidated into silence.

Wu Lang-huang, a Taiwanese professor who was present when troops arrived on the square in 1989, said he will continue to document what happened and collect related artifacts.

“It’s not just about remembering what happened then but also for the lessons it tells us about modern Hong Kong and Taiwan,” Wu said.

One of the vigil’s organizers, who went by the name Mimi for fear of repercussions, said some may question why people born years after the 1989 protests still care.

“It’s about memory, which is itself a form of resistance,” she said.

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By Ken Moritsugu And Kanis Leung

Leung reported from Hong Kong. Christopher Bodeen contributed reporting from Taipei.