China authorities said they would close Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Tuesday, the 35th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown, while Hong Kong police also tightened security as activists in Taiwan and elsewhere prepared to mark the date with vigils. Chinese tanks rolled into the square before dawn on June 4, 1989, to end weeks of student and worker protests. Decades after the military crackdown, rights activists say the demonstrators’ original goals – including a free press and freedom of speech – remain distant, and June 4 is still a taboo topic in China. The ruling Communist Party has never released a death toll, though rights groups and witnesses say the figure could run into the thousands. Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te said in a statement on Tuesday that "the memory of June 4th will not disappear in the torrent of history". With security tight in China and Hong Kong on the anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, FRANCE 24 is joined by Elaine Pearson is director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, overseeing the work of the division in more than 20 countries.
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