Daily News: China - Massive Demonstration honors memory of Tiananmen Square in Hong Kong

Hong Kong commemoration Tiananmen Square massacre (picture from Cheung/AP)

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China - Massive Demonstration honors memory of Tiananmen Square massacre in Hong Kong

A massive crowd of Chinese demonstrators gathered Thursday to honor the pro-democracy students killed in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago - but the rally was in Hong Kong, not Beijing. In Tiananmen Square, the only crowds on the vast plaza were security officers ready to silence the smallest hint of protest of what happened two decades ago. Foreign reporters were barred from entering the square, families of the victims were confined to their homes and internet sites mentioning the tragedy were scrubbed by a Chinese government that would rather it be forgotten.

But the crowd in Hong Kong remembered. "We will never forget June 4," sang a throng of as many as 150,000 people holding candles in Victoria Park. "It is the dream of all Chinese people to have democracy! Hong Kong is the only place where we can commemorate, and we have to repeat this every year so our younger generations don't forget," said Annie Chu, 36, a tourism worker who has attended every annual vigil.

Telegraph: Poland celebrates 20 years since end of communist rule - by Matthew Day

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Poland celebrates 20 years since end of communist rule - by Matthew Day

Poland celebrated its 20th anniversary of the elections that ended communist rule and precipitated a wave of revolution in Eastern Europe which left the Iron Curtain shattered and Europe reunited after decades of division. Coming after lengthy negotiations between Poland's authoritarian government and Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement, the elections of June 4 delivered a hammer blow to a communist bloc that was still regarded by many as indestructible. In the months that followed June 4, an unprecedented wave of revolution tore through Eastern Europe bringing an end to the Cold War and tearing up the continent's geo-political map.

Perhaps mindful that election's anniversary coincided with that of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Vaclav Havel, the dissident play write who led the Czech revolution, said that events of 1989 should provide an example to those still struggling for freedom. "I think that this anniversary is an opportunity, to send out a sign of solidarity to those nations, who are fighting for liberation," he said in Krakow. "Let this be our input in the testament of the future, in the improvement of our future, of our common world."

Guardian.uk/Wallstreet Journal/EU-Digest: China blocks Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Hotmail ahead of Tiananmen anniversary - by Tania Branigan

"EU and China Going beyond Tiananmen Square"

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China blocks Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Hotmail ahead of Tiananmen anniversary - by Tania Branigan

On Tuesday Chinese censors blocked access to Twitter and other popular online services today , two days before the 20th anniversary of the crackdown on democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. The move came amid increasing pressure on dissidents, in a reflection of the authorities' anxiety ahead of the sensitive date. Hundreds died as the army forced its way through Beijing to clear away demonstrators from the capital's political heart in June 1989, but the issue is taboo on the mainland. The photo-sharing site Flickr, email service Hotmail and other services were also unavailable. Reuters reported that the email service Hotmail was also blocked across the mainland, while some internet users said they were unable to access Microsoft's Windows Live. Blogger.com was blocked last month and YouTube has been inaccessible from the mainland since March. Internet monitors have also shut down message boards on more than 6,000 websites affiliated with colleges and universities, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.

The US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has urged China to publicly account for those killed in the Tiananmen Square massacre 20 years ago. She called on China to release all those still imprisoned in connection with the protests, to stop harassing those who took part and to begin a dialogue with the victims' families. China, as an emerging global power, "should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal," she said in a statement from Washington. "China can honor the memory of that day by moving to give the rule of law, protection of internationally recognized human rights and democratic development the same priority as it has given to economic reform,'' she added.

The Wallstreet Journal reports Europe's stance toward human-rights abuses in China has become increasingly spineless. The EU withdrew post-Tiananmen sanctions in the early 1990s. Since then commercial gain has subordinated any attempt to influence China's political modernization. The EU acquiesced in China's entry into the WTO, throwing away its biggest leverage over Beijing in return for very limited change to China's system of economic governance. China has increasingly backtracked on its WTO commitments to open its economy -- which could in turn have helped political liberalization. China has attracted increasing aid from Germany, France and the European Commission itself, which spends more than €100 million ($141 million) a year on trade-related and business projects. It even spends €1 million a year on a fruitless Human Rights Dialogue. Paris and Berlin also wish to remove the EU's arms embargo -- the last remaining post-Tiananmen-massacre sanction imposed by Europe.