Silence, security in Beijing on 30th Tiananmen anniversary

China marked 30 years since the deadly Tiananmen crackdown on Tuesday with a wall of silence and extra security after arresting activists and tightening internet censorship ahead of the politically sensitive anniversary.

On a grey, overcast day, police checked the identification cards of every tourist and commuter leaving the subway near Tiananmen Square, the site of the pro-democracy protests that were brutally extinguished by tanks and soldiers on June 4, 1989.

Foreign journalists were not allowed onto the square at all or warned by police not to take pictures.

The United States marked the occasion by hailing the "heroic" movement of 1989 and denouncing a "new wave of abuses" in China.

But in China the Communist Party made sure that the anniversary remained in the distant past, detaining several activists in the run-up to June 4 while popular livestreaming sites conspicuously shut down for "technical" maintenance.

Over the years, the party has censored any discussion of the protests and crackdown, which left hundreds, possibly more than 1,000, dead -- ensuring that people either never learn about what happened or fear detention if they dare discuss it openly.

The party and its high-tech police apparatus have tightened control over civil society since President Xi Jinping took office in 2012, rounding up activists, rights lawyers and even Marxist students who sympathised with labour movements.

Countless surveillance cameras are perched on lampposts in and around Tiananmen Square.

"It's not that we don't care. We know what happened," said a driver for the DiDi ride-hailing service who was born in 1989.

"But how can I tell you, the DiDi app is recording our conversation in the car," he said.

"But today's China has changed. If you have money you have everything. Without money you dare not open your mouth." It was largely business as usual at Tiananmen on Tuesday: Hundreds of people, including children waving small Chinese flags while sitting on their parents' shoulders, lined up at the security checkpoint before dawn to watch the daily flag-raising at the square.

But the line moved slowly due to extra security -- with IDs matched on facial recognition screens -- and dozens were unable to watch the event.

When asked whether it crossed her mind that she was visiting the square on the 30th anniversary, a nursing school graduate in her 20s from eastern Shandong province said, "What do you mean? No, it didn't cross my mind."
Her mother jumped in to say, "We don't think of that past."