As debate rages about what role it should play in Burma’s violent crackdown on protesters, China’s government celebrates National Day (ÂõΩÂ∫ÜËäÇ ) amongst reminders of its own bloody response to protests 18 years ago. From the Associated Press:
China celebrated [National Day] with a flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square, as scores of onlookers snapped photos in a light rain as the national anthem played, TV footage in Hong Kong showed.
The square was decorated with 400,000 pots containing 130 different species of flowers, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Tiananmen is the site of the bloody crackdown on student protesters on June 4, 1989 that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands.
In Hong Kong, radical lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄 ) and seven others marched near the site of a government-sponsored National Day reception. The protesters burned a photo of former Chinese Premier Li Peng to denounce his alleged role in ordering the Tiananmen crackdown. [Full Text]
[Image: Two young Chinese girls wave flags on Tian’anmen Square on September 30, 2007, the eve of National Day, from Xinhua via China Daily]
