As the first annual demonstration took place in Hong Kong yesterday to mark the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, a senior Chinese figure accused the United States of playing a subversive role in the protests which preceded the bloodshed on June 4th 1989.
Capitalising on an anti-US mood in Beijing following the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade earlier this month, an unnamed official in the National People's Congress depicted the hundreds of thousands of people who protested against corruption and economic mismanagement as dupes of the US.
"The anti-China forces in the United States and some other Western countries played an inglorious role in that disturbance," said the official, quoted by Xinhua news agency and clearly representing the government which has refrained from open comment on the anniversary.
The West, he said, took an active role by "directly masterminding schemes and giving money and goods to support those making the disturbance". Defending the use of the People's Liberation Army to crush the protests, leaving many hundreds dead, the official praised the Chinese government for taking "immediate, correct and resolute measures" at the time. These successfully "stopped the disturbance, thus maintaining social stability - otherwise there would be no political stability or today's remarkable economic and social progress," the official said.
Waving black-and-white placards with slogans reading "Vindicate June 4th", "Forgive? Forget? No Way", and "Free dissidents", more than 2,000 people marched through central Hong Kong yesterday to mark the anniversary which falls on Friday. They also called for punishment of those responsible and an end of one-party rule in China.
A number of rallies to commemorate Tiananmen take place every year in Hong Kong, which retained its freedoms since reverting to Chinese rule in July 1997. A large candle-light vigil is planned for Friday evening. "Hong Kong is the only place in China where people can commemorate the Tiananmen massacre," said Mr Szeto Wah, a pro-democracy leader. "It is important we fight on. We are a spark in China's democratic movement." While Hong Kong allows the annual protest, it has refused to grant a visa to Mr Wang Dan, one of the Tiananmen protest leaders, currently living in exile in the United States.