Hong Kong marks Tiananmen crackdown
- 12 years ago
ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
STORY: An estimated 180,000 people turned out for a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong on Monday in memory of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in and near Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, as China moved to halt Internet searches related to the killings.
The demonstrators massed in a downtown park to mark the 23rd anniversary of the event, holding candles around a June 4 memorial and a replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue that was built in Tiananmen Square before tanks and troops crushed the protests.
People sang pro-democracy songs and held candles to remember the victims of June 4, 1989.
For China's ruling Communist Party, all discussion of the 1989 demonstrations that clogged Tiananmen Square and spread to other cities remains taboo, all the more so this year as the government prepares for a tricky leadership handover.
But for Hong Kong, a former British colony which enjoys wide-ranging autonomy, the June 4 vigil is an annual event.
STORY: An estimated 180,000 people turned out for a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong on Monday in memory of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in and near Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, as China moved to halt Internet searches related to the killings.
The demonstrators massed in a downtown park to mark the 23rd anniversary of the event, holding candles around a June 4 memorial and a replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue that was built in Tiananmen Square before tanks and troops crushed the protests.
People sang pro-democracy songs and held candles to remember the victims of June 4, 1989.
For China's ruling Communist Party, all discussion of the 1989 demonstrations that clogged Tiananmen Square and spread to other cities remains taboo, all the more so this year as the government prepares for a tricky leadership handover.
But for Hong Kong, a former British colony which enjoys wide-ranging autonomy, the June 4 vigil is an annual event.