The 80th anniversary of the May 4th Movement, a symbolic day for student protesters, passed without serious incident in China yesterday. Protests were discouraged by a heavy police presence at universities and the arrest of democracy activists. Many observers believe, however, that today's generation of students does not have the will or stomach for confrontation with the authorities.
This was the first of a number of anniversaries this year.
The 10th anniversary of the June 4th crackdown on pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square falls in one month. On May 4th, 1919, students seized the political initiative in China. Some 3,000 staged a patriotic march from Tiananmen Square to the diplomatic compound to protest at the pro-Japan actions of the Chinese government and Western powers.
The arrest of their leaders ignited a country-wide student revolt which created the conditions for the formation of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.
Yesterday, police patrolled the perimeter of Tiananmen Square and the streets around the Zhongnanhai leadership compound nearby to nip any demonstration in the bud.
Concerned about stability in the year China marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, authorities forbade freelance commemorative activities.
In the north-eastern city of Changchun, police stopped dissidents from holding a seminar to discuss the spirit of the May 4th Movement in modern society, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.
The banned China Democracy Party claimed in a statement to be "the loyal successor, resolute protector and standard bearer of the spirit of the May 4th Movement".
China has jailed three founding members of the party, and sent many other activists to labour camps, and last week 15 more activists were detained to prevent May 4th protests, according to the Hong Kong human rights group.
In Hong Kong yesterday pro-democracy activists demonstrated outside the offices of Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, displaying a banner which read "To Remember May 4th and Not to Forget June 4th".
The People's Daily set the tone for the anniversary with patriotic stories of students vowing to carry on the nation-building idealism of the 1919 students. "The May 4th Movement was a lodestar for a benighted China and the starting point of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese race," the newspaper quoted a student of Peking University, where the original movement began.
In a veiled attack on the secretive Falun Gong organisation, which advocates breathing exercises combined with the study of Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, the official People's Daily made a point of saying the May 4th movement opposed superstition.
On April 25th more than 15,000 members of Falun Gong staged the biggest protest in Beijing since 1989, after it was criticised in the media and five members arrested.