Squaring off

OUTSIDE China, the bloodshed in Beijing on the night of June 3rd 1989 and the morning after was a defining moment in the country’s modern history. The word “Tiananmen” instantly evokes those horrific hours, when hundreds of pro-democracy protesters were gunned down or crushed by tanks in the streets around the vast central square. Inside China, however, most people have only a hazy notion of what happened. That is because the Communist Party allows barely any mention of the massacre. On the anniversary four years ago censors even blocked internet searches for the term “Shanghai stock exchange”, because the index that day fell 64.89 points, the digits oddly coincidental with those of the date most associated with the killings.

The only large-scale commemorations in China are in Hong Kong, which was not under Chinese rule when the bloodshed occurred, and still enjoys some autonomy. But even in the former British colony there are some who side with the party and prefer to airbrush the event. An umbrella group of pro-democracy organisations, known as the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, believes that a “June 4th Museum” it opened two years ago—the world’s first relating to the unrest of 1989—has fallen victim to such people’s concerns.