Hong Kong Remembers Tiananmen

HONG KONG — In what may have been the last public commemoration of its kind in Hong Kong, thousands of people marched Sunday to mark the eighth anniversary of China’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing.

The rally, with people waving placards, singing songs and shouting for the release of Chinese political prisoners, has been held each year since Chinese soldiers drove protesters from Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds of people.

With China set to take over the British colony in less than a month, this year’s observance was fraught with fears that it might be the last. The Beijing-approved government that will take over Hong Kong next month plans to give police greater powers to ban demonstrations, part of a package of widely criticized curbs on civil liberties it says is needed to ensure stability after July 1.

Not least among the casualties of the 1989 crackdown was the confidence of many in Hong Kong about their future under Chinese rule. For many who marched Sunday, fears about the future mingled with a commemoration of the past.

Eva Siu said she joined the rally for the first time this year. “I thought this could be the last time for us to have this march,” said the 24-year-old social worker. “We are here to express our wish for a free and democratic country.”

Organizers estimated the number of marchers at more than 7,000, but the actual count seemed closer to half that. Under rainy skies, the throng walked two miles from Hong Kong’s high-rise central business district to the offices of the New China News Agency, China’s de facto embassy in the colony.