Hundreds of protesters in Hong Kong took to the streets on Sunday (May 28) to demand better human rights in China ahead of the 28th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing.
Organisers and protesters say Beijing should admit and be responsible for what happened June 4th 1989, when tanks rolled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to break up student-led pro-democracy protests.
A vigil on the night of June 4 in commemoration of the crackdown is scheduled to be held in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule under a deal to preserve wide-ranging freedoms, is the only place on Chinese soil where commemorations of June 4 are tolerated.
Even discussion of the 1989 protests, termed “counter-revolutionary” by Beijing, is taboo on the mainland. China has never released a death toll but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.
