THOUSANDS of people marched through the centre of Hong Kong yesterday in the last annual commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown before China takes over the territory one month from now, writes Conor O'Clery.
The organisers announced that they would test their freedoms under Chinese sovereignty by holding another march on July 1st, just hours after the British flag is hauled down.
In an ironic gesture of defiance to Beijing, one group of young organisers sang the Communist anthem, the Internationale, while another carried a dummy, draped with the Chinese flag, hanging by the neck from a pole.
But there are signs in China of a new recognition of the events of 1989, when hundreds died at the hands of troops sent in to break up student led demonstrations for democracy in Beijing on June 4th of that year.
A Chinese court last week threw out convictions against four dissidents for their role in the Tiananmen Square protests. The four, who are not well known outside China, had been sentenced for organising a "counter revolutionary clique".
The ruling could indicate high level debate about Tiananmen following the death earlier this year of the paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, who ordered the action.
Recently 42 relatives of people killed by the troops sent a petition to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in Beijing calling for an official inquiry into their deaths.
"The government committed a crime against the people," said Ms Ding Zilin, a retired history professor, whose 17 year old son was killed. "A new assessment of the June 4th incident must be prepared," the petition said.
In the Hong Kong demonstration yesterday one huge banner depicted the Statue of Liberty. Last month Hong Kong authorities banned the erection of a Liberty Goddess Statue in a park as a memorial to those who died eight years ago this week.
Reuter adds from Hong KonK The Hong Kong events to recall Tiananmen will culminate on Wednesday night with a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park. Last year a similar event drew some 45,000 people.