BEIJING — Thirty years after Chinese soldiers killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators in Beijing and other cities, memories of the violence remain fraught, with China detaining activists, tightening censorship and denouncing calls for a full accounting of the bloodshed. Anniversaries of the crackdown around Tiananmen Square that began on the evening of June 3, 1989, are often tense in China, but this year the strain is heightened by a trade war with the United States and worries that Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese city that holds the largest public vigil for the dead, is losing its singular status and freedoms. On Tuesday, China denounced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement a day earlier honoring the protesters and criticizing continuing human rights abuses. Mr. Pompeo’s statement was made “out of prejudice and arrogance” and “grossly intervenes in China’s internal affairs, attacks its system, and smears its domestic and foreign policies,” the Chinese Embassy in Washington said.

Source: New York Times June 04, 2019 07:01 UTC