(Reuters)– China defended the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Tuesday (June 3), the eve of the 25th anniversary, saying it had chosen the correct path for the sake of the people.
For the ruling Communist Party, the 1989 demonstrations that clogged Tiananmen Square inBeijing and spread to other cities remain taboo after the government termed the protests “counter-revolutionary”.
The anniversary of the date on which troops shot their way into central Beijing in 1989 has never been publicly marked in mainland China, though every year there are commemorations in Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, as well as in self-ruled Taiwan, whichChina claims as its own.
The government has never released a death toll for the crackdown, but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.
“The Chinese government has long ago reached a conclusion about the political turmoil inChina and relevant issues at the end of the 1980s,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news conference in Beijing.
Authorities detained several activists last month after attending a meeting about the protests, including prominent rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, prompting concern in the United States andEurope.
Hong said China had no such thing as dissidents.
“In China there are only law breakers — there are no so-called dissidents. The relevant departments of the Chinese government act according to the law. China’s legal authority should be respected. We express our dissatisfaction on the relevant party’s practices,” Hong told reporters.
The run-up to the anniversary has been marked by detentions, increased security in Beijing and tighter controls on the internet, including disruption of Google services.
Hong would not comment on why Google was being targeted, saying only that the government “manages the internet in accordance with the law”.
“I don’t understand the details of the situation, but I want to point out that the Chinese government manages the internet in accordance with the law,” he said.
Hong also would not comment on the reported detention in Beijing over the weekend of Chinese-born Australian artist Guo Jian, a former Chinese soldier who last week gave an interview to the Financial Times about the crackdown.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, speaking to Sky News Australia, said the government was still trying to find out what had happened.