Security tight as people mark 30 years of Tiananmen crackdown

China has been marking 30 years since its deadly crackdown on student demonstrators in Beijing with silence and extra security measures.

The anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, when Beijing sent troops and tanks to quell pro-democracy activists, is not spoken of openly in China and will not be formally marked by the government, which has ramped up censorship.

On Tuesday, security forces were deployed throughout Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where on the evening of 3 June through the morning of 4 June, 1989, hundreds if not thousands of people were killed.

Crowds of tourists were waiting to pass through security to have their ID card scanned and bags checked. Plainclothes and uniformed police patrolled the perimeter of the area. An armoured police car was stationed along a street leading to the square. Asked about the extra checks, a police officer said: “Today is a bit special.”

Foreign journalists were not allowed to enter the square. Plainclothes police blocked reporters from taking photos by opening umbrellas in front of them.

China’s Washington embassy angrily denounced criticism by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who called for China to release all political prisoners and offered his salute to “the heroes of the Chinese people who bravely stood up 30 years ago in Tiananmen Square to demand their rights”.

The embassy said in a statement: “China’s human rights are in the best period ever.” Pompeo had made his comments “out of prejudice and arrogance”, it said.

“Whoever attempts to patronise and bully the Chinese people in any name, or preach a ‘clash of civilizations’ to resist the trend of times will never succeed. They will only end up in the ash heap of history,” the embassy statement said.

China has never released a final death toll from the events on and around June 4. Estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to thousands.